Re: Project update time - GGB

["David C. Moore" <dmoore@mbhs.edu>]

On Fri, 3 Sep 1999, Daniel P. Kionka wrote:

> Bradley Burnside wrote:
> > ...
> >     My original efforts revolved around a simpler backend but as I tried to
> > increase the complexity of the backend it only broke a lot of vital code.
> > My new efforts are going to be building a nice stable backend which will be
> > able to run from a shell.  Once when I have all the wonderful features I
> > need for the gradebook to be functional, I will implement my nice gtk
> > front-end I have already created.
>
> I have not looked at GGB, but philosophically I like this approach. 
> There are too many systems that would be great to use, but they are so
> tied into their GUI that you can't use them any other way.
>

Bradley, have you looked into using a SQL backend for your database?
MySQL/mSQL and other free SQL backends are becoming very popular for many
open-source projects.  The advantage that you get is the database does not
necessary have to be on the same machine as the client.  In addition,
you'll find that all the I/O work is done for you, and you can achieve
greater readability of code by avoiding the nitty gritty of coding your
own database.  Using this approach, GGB could easily be expanded at some
point to support the use of an entire school, by using a server with the
SQL database, and allowing GGB clients to connect.
 
> I am using WebCT for a college programming course I am teaching.  I want
> to see an open source equivalent some day.  WebCT is completely browser
> based, so you can run the server on any OS and use it from anywhere.  If
> the real meat of GGB is text based, you could write a CGI interface to
> give it a web front end as well.
> 

Daniel,

There is an open-source project that I am currently developing that is
very similar to WebCT.  It offers many of the same features, and IMHO, is
prettier.  Note that all of WebCT's features are not currently
implemented.  It's called AUC (Authenticated User Community) and the
homepage is http://library.advanced.org/27155.  I encourage you to try the
demo that's running and send me your comments.  There is currently a
version availale for download also.  (I'll make a more complete
announcement of this software to this mailing list shortly).

Regards,

David Moore

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  David Moore       California Institute of Technology
 <dcm@acm.org>             http://www.mbhs.edu/~dmoore
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