[Mailman-Developers] Re: [Mailman-Users] [RELEASED] Mailman 2.1 alpha 3

[Chuq Von Rospach]

On 10/22/01 10:11 AM, "Dale Newfield" <Dale@Newfield.org> wrote:

> I won't be able to get started on this for another month or so, but
> knowing that someone has thought about it gives me warm fuzzies.  Any
> pitfalls I should be aware of?

It was something I put a fair amount of energy into before I started my
sabbatical... 

You might look at 

<http://www.chuqui.com/cgi-bin/mwf/topic_show.pl?tid=74>

<http://www.chuqui.com/cgi-bin/mwf/topic_show.pl?tid=51>

<http://www.chuqui.com/cgi-bin/mwf/topic_show.pl?tid=82>

For some history of my stuff.

(if you're trying to figure out what the heck I mean by "my sabbatical",
look here: <http://www.chuqui.com/cgi-bin/mwf/topic_show.pl?tid=103>)

I basically have three long-term 'things' I'm looking at:

1) an internal list server, currently a custom perl system, that handles all
of Apple's internal groups. The management of those groups is fully external
to the system. The current system downloads a data dump from the corporate
database every couple of hours and does nasty things to it, turning it into
a huge sendmail alias file. A future generation will probably replace that
with a real-time LDAP interface. I'd really like to avoid writing the whole
beast, and add things like digest capability.

2) taking all my apple list stuff, and moving subscription management into a
central access point for all things Apple. Which doesn't exist yet, but the
first pieces are there. I'd really like it so that there's a single place to
manage everything you do in your on-line relationship with Apple, not
zillions of different forms, signups, accounts, passwords and "if you're
looking for *this*, go to *that* web site, not here" notices.

3) and in my non-apple life, I want to build something similar to (2), but
for my own uses. If I decide to return from sabbatical. Or maybe grab an
existing thing like php-nuke, and wedge mailman onto the side. But it's
really clear (to me) that this stuff all has to get integrated down the
road, and giving a user site-wide, consistent administration is a key
usability issue -- and there's more to life than mail lists. Tools that
don't integrate, are going to find themselves marginalized or replaced.

All IMHO (or actually, IMNSHO).