Workspaces with the Web IDE - are they needed?

Discussion Points

• Are workspaces needed for metadata? Maybe we could attach "workspace" metadata to the IDE, the app, or the user instead.
• Are workspaces needed for peer resolution? Does it make sense to visually hide that apps are in peer directories, yet use peer directories for dependency resolution?
• Should a user be able to create apps anywhere they want? If so, do workspaces get in the way of that?

GUI

• Here is one way we could implement the GUI without having the concept of workspaces:
• DevToolsTooling.20080209-Workspaces.ppt: DevToolsTooling without Workspaces

Metadata needed for an app

• Most recently used files list – can be metadata associated with the app, IDE, or user
• Repository Info
  • Local repository location
  • Remote repository chain
  • Both of these can be user or IDE-level parameters if we support locking an app to a particular version (see below)
• What else?

Version locking (see "Future Discussion" on previous page)

• • In ivy.xml, need to have two config stanzas:
    • One with “1.0+” that indicates “grab the latest compatible version”
    • One with “1.0.20070202” that is locked down to a particular version (generally what we built with)
  • Need GA-level versioning (without M3/4/5 etc)
  • Need a way to tell the app which Ivy config stanza to use - locked or latest
  • This approach would allow a user to maintain a single repository rather than have separate repositories for each stable build

-- brettk - 09 Feb 2008