RSF Discussions Forum

Well, 27th July 2006 marks 1 year since I first put finger to keyboard to type the magic words

Code:

 package uk.org.ponder.rsf.components;
 
 public class UIComponent {

I can't say I ever believed it would be this much work to get finished, but then RSF is already doing dozens of things I never believed possible. It's looking now that RSF will be a success, largely because of the entirely excellent, enthusiastic and inventive community that is growing up around it. I thought this would be a good time to say a few words thanking some standout members without which RSF would, quite literally be nothing.

Firstly, "Mond" Chan, who despite his initial scepticism ("What? A renderer based on 'ID BAGS'?? That couldn't possibly work!") has provided never-failing encouragment and appreciation for the ideals of RSF. Amazingly, despite his wacked XML-infected programming idiom, he even seems to find it useful

Next up, the incomparable Steve Githens, First User! The world doesn't yet understand half of the souped-up AJAXified things that Steve is up to, but when they do, they will probably cower

Steve is the key to appreciation of RSF by the "younger generation" who aren't going to put up with stuffy UI idioms for any longer. He's rapidly proving that RSF is a perfect match for "any old stuff" on the client, and really lets designers just get on with designing. Steve's constant enthusiasm and innovation has been one of the best things about watching RSF grow.

The indomitable Aaron Zeckoski! Has far better communication skills than me and will be crucial in dissemination and education of RSF. His "down to brass tacks" style makes sure that RSF will never drift off into the lands of pointless theorising, but concentrate solidly on making the actual experience better for users and developers alike. His mastery of abstruse Javascript injection means that client-side validation for RSF is going to be an absolute snap

Andy "the Monkies!" Thornton has long been the "RSF helpline". Whenever there is an appalling algorithm hoving over the horizon to write (topological sorting of hierarchical EL bindings, anyone) or a vile corner case that noone has dreamed of stubbing their toes on, Andy is there without fail. The number of unworkable strategies that Andy has crushed at birth are equalled only by the number of times he has yelled "BADGERS!" across a crowded office. Without Andy, lots of the code in RSF would just be "WRONG". Lots of it still is of course, but then Andy may not have looked at it yet...

And the list has to be completed with the courageous and noble John Norman, director of CARET, who has put up with me for much of this time working on a project only of indirect benefit to the department, and for a long while with very little in the way of concrete expectation of success. Politically and economically, it's John who is footing the bill for RSF, and largely, solely for the Benefit of the Public.

Happy Birthday RSF! The second year of its life will see it essentially stabilise, since after multi-file templates, and Aaron's client-side validation library, there are essentially no more core features to add. The world will gradually come to accept the unstoppable merits of pure templating and request scope IoC, and RSF will find uses for itself that so far we can barely imagine. Considering JSF was born in 2001 from a major corporation, I think we are doing pretty darn well - here's to the next year! And the wider future!