Frist

First post for my professional AppEngine blog. Hi all!

I've been inspired to write this blog based on my work with AppEngine. Until recently, that work was fairly light on, comprising mostly my application Syyncc . However, I recently took on a new role with Ecampus, in which we're pushing forward with new product development in AppEngine. And in beginning that work I've learned some things.

Firstly, I've learned that I barely touched on the capabilities of AppEngine and web development with Syyncc. That app has some interesting back end work going on, but in terms of web apps it's fairly primitive. So, as I now contemplate some serious development in AppEngine (and by "contemplate" I mean "struggle to do"), the gaps in my knowledge are making themselves known.

Secondly, it's becoming clear that AppEngine is deep and wide. This isn't just some toy system, it's got chops. And while it might look a bit like LAMP stack style virtual web hosting, it is much more than that. But, it is also different. It's a serious distributed high level PaaS environment, and to make decent use of it, I'm going to need to understand it on its own terms. So for instance, the HRD is not like a SQL database, it's like HRD.

Thirdly, I'm going to need some frameworks. AppEngine provides amazing features, but they tend to be platform focused, rather than application focused. For professional calibre work, you need libraries, frameworks, to bridge the gap. There do seem to be things around the place, but they're a bit dispersed, many are open source projects in states of gentile decline, and generally there's not much of a big picture. So I'm going to need to do some hard yards pulling a pro framework together myself.

In light of these things, I've decided that I need to put a serious effort into skilling up and creating a codebase of app frameworks. I'll be diving deep into various AppEngine related topics, cutting code, testing hypotheses.

And you know, why not flaunt my ignorance in public? Thus, this blog. I invite you, dear reader, to watch as I stumble my way blindly through this new landscape, skin my knee here and there, and possibly create something useful along the way. And, if like the look of those skinned knees and elbows and want some of your own, then jump in, speak up, and we can plow on painfully together!