[seul-edu] Packaged systems or individual apps?

[robin <robin@bilkent.edu.tr>]

I was wondering what people here thought about the relative merits of 
installing all-in-one educational packages (e.g. Claroline, Manhattan 
Virtual Classroom) versus individual applications that you install 
and/or write yourself.  Personally I ended up with the latter solution 
largely because I don't administrate my own server, and getting most 
prepackaged solutions to play nice with SQL and PHP on the server was 
more trouble than it was worth.  I realised that for the time being all 
I really needed was a website, a facility to upload files and a forum; 
the first I already had, the second was easy enough to write and the 
last was provided nicely by Simpleforum, a Perl app which doesn't 
require SQL or PHP.  However, I'd be interested to hear other people's 
experiences, particularly those who don't have root access to their servers.

Robin

--
"I can say: 'Thank these bees for their honey as though they were kind people who have prepared it for you'; that is intelligible and describes how I should like you to conduct yourself. But I cannot say: 'Thank them because, look, how kind they are!'--since the next moment they may sting you.
- Wittgenstein

Robin Turner
IDMYO
Bilkent Univeritesi
Ankara 06533
Turkey

www.bilkent.edu.tr/~robin