Re: Shopping Cart Project - interested?

[gmpassos]

Hello motivated man,

So you are going to produce "The Best Shopping Cart Project".

Well, is a interesting thing, but be careful about the best of best thing to do, use, etc...

I think that the best advice that I can give you is the KIS concept. Keep It Simple!!!

For example XP, well, are you going to make a virtual cooperation group or a live group working in the same job? As I understud is a virtual group, so, will XP work well? I think that CVS and a mailing-list is the best thing that you can use for a virtual process.

What I really want to say is that technology exists to help, not to be the main target. So, make a list of the best technology is easy and interesting, but generally a technology is something complex and when you assemble a lot of technology you will have something even more complex, and something complexer than what the problem really is won't work, or at least will give us a hard and long work that is not economically viable (even for a free project, since time is money). So, start from the needs of the project, and for some problem that the project have, look for a technology easy and stable to resolve the problem, in the end you will have a small list of technologies to use, what is good.

So, always keep in the mind the concept KIS. I do this all the time and it really works. I prefer to spend some days looking for an easy, simple and good way to resolve the problem than just start to work and stay some weeks working in some complex solution, since a complex solution is something that any human being can create easy. Actually humans like to make things complex, just look around (do you know exactly how all your things works?)

Other thing, look around, always look around, even the simple things, actually specially the simple things. So, see other Shopping Cart Projects or any site with a Shopping Cart, and see what is interesting from the client/user side, see a nice interface, etc... Since the client/user will be who will say if what you have created is really good. But in your project the client is also the webmaster that will use your project and implement the Shopping Cart in some site, so, will not be easy.

Humm, start looking amazon.com, and I can say to you that they use less complex technologies than your list.

Well, for now is this. Note that this is an advice from someone that works giving this advices, that also did some comercial projects like that. So enjoy, since I will not send you the bill. ;-P

Good luck!