Re: Plethora of gradebooks

[Matt Wimer <matt@cgibuilder.com>]

Hi again,

Bradley, seems like we want to come up with a sql
schema that we both like.  This will be great, you could
then write your app in c and mine in perl and let users
choose.

i am sure EDUML is going to come up before long so
i'll go first.   :)

eduml looks like a great protocol to transfer school
related data from school system to school system and
from teacher to teacher.

My concern is having a 1-to-1 mapping between eduml and
out sql schema.  I took a look at eduml .5 and i see
a few issues, which i would like for the three of us(you,
me, and the eduml author) to work out.  Even if our two
apps don't talk the same sql atleast they will be able to 
import and export some version of eduml.

I have a co-author that i want to talk to as well. (He's really
new to unix. So, new i had the pleasure of teaching him vi. :)
So if we can work on making the sql schema and a new version
of eduml then we will have good interoperablity.

The idea of a web front end will just be the same as any other frontend.
So, i don't see any problem with it.

--matt wimer
im on vaction now until jan 11 so we probably won't be able to
talk in real time until then, but i will be reading my email.

(Nice to hear from you bradley!)

On Sat, Dec 26, 1998 at 10:40:03PM -0500, Bradley Burnside wrote:
> Hi all!
>      Well, on the topic of gradebooks...I should probably say what my plans are.
> 
> SQL:    This will be my primary method of storing grades at the school.
> Everything can be stored on the same server which makes student records easily
> accessible by all teachers and administrators.
> 
> PERL:  I know Matt Wimer is doing his in perl...I learned Perl from a book so
> I'm not that proficient in Perl, But I do think perl might be the easiest way
> for me to submit data to a database.  So I am still researching perl as a fast
> way to access the database.  But there is also some nice functions of C that let
> me access the database too, so that is still in debate.
> 
> GNOME:   The app will be GNOME compliant.  I think GNOME is going to be a major
> part of Linux in the future so I am jumping on the bandwagon now before I have
> to start writing my app from scratch to make it compliant.  That means you'll
> all need the gnome libs to run my app correctly.
> 
> XML:  Here is a slight difference between my app and Matt's.  Mine will have a
> local save option.   If a teacher wants to take home a class list and add grades
> to it they can, so they don't have to be limited to the school to add grades.
> 
> C/C++:  I will be writing the majority if not all of it in C,  I haven't written
> much in C++ so I won't be using it.
> 
> WEB:  I have thought about Web Connectivity, and I am not positive if having
> Grades accessible VIA the inernet is safe and if schools are going to look at
> that as a plus.  I've seen it done on college campuses but never at a highschool
> or lower.  I've been e-mailed by a few people with pluses and minuses of it and
> I am still debating whether it will be a part of the app.  As it stands, it will
> not be a part of the early releases.
> 
> DOCS:  HAHA!!!  Documentation...funny.  I have been in contact with someone who
> is willing to write documentation.  So once when I have a release there will be
> documentation to follow.
> 
> LISCENCE:  It'll be GPLed probably because people in the linux community
> wouldn't use it unless it was.  Look at KDE, many people wouldn't use it until
> it was GPL'ed.
> 
> INSTALL:  The basic tar -xzvf, then ./configure, make, make install.  We've all
> done it a million times, you know the routine.
> 
> Matt Wimer is also going to be using SQL, so I'm going to contact him..or he is
> going to contact me...whatever comes first.  It would bring me great pleasure if
> my app and his were cross compatible.  So my app could load his data and his
> could load my data.
> 
>     Bradley Burnside  -  bradley@voyager.net
> 
> 
> 
> Douglas Loss wrote:
> 
> > Well, the gradebook idea looks like one whose time has come.  We have three
> > separate gradebooks in development, from Justin Maurer, Matt Wimer, and
> > Bradley Burnside.  At least two of them (maybe all three) will be
> > GNOME-compliant.  Could I ask you three fellows a favor?  Could you talk to
> > each other about what you're doing and how you're approaching the task?
> > There could easily be good reasons for having numerous different gradebooks
> > in the Linux world, but I think you'll find each of your efforts will be the
> > better for finding out what others are doing in the field.  And who knows, it
> >  may turn out that you'd like to combine efforts and come out with one
> > kick-butt app!
> >
> > --
> > Doug Loss            Democracy substitutes election by the
> > dloss@csrlink.net    incompetent many for appointment by
> > (717) 326-3987       the corrupt few.
> >                         George Bernard Shaw
> 
>