Orion/Planning Meeting/Target Users

Who is Orion's target user?

• CSS users are very important. Many developers spending a lot of time doing CSS development and are not well served by existing tools.
• Have a need for immediate feedback - tight edit/refresh cycle
• Embed Orion in the site being built to allow in-situ development (mod_orion)

• Server needs to be very easy to install
• Use server locally for offline support

What do small web developers use today?

• TextMate/Notepad
• JQuery/PHP
• Browser developer tools / Firebug
• Various lint tools

Developers of Giant Apps

• Need to be able to work on the site back end functionality as well as web front end
• Develop/debug cycle flows through client and server code
• HAML/SASS/LESS for build-time
• Compression/Closure
• JS Debuggers

Typical workflows:

• Edit/Test/Run/Debug (no build/compression)
• Package/deploy/Debug again (debugging deployed, packaged app)
• Wireframe/Mockup/Design
• Documentation at all stages
• Collaboration between designers and developers
  • Mockingbird
  • Balsamiq
• Declarative programming with code generation:
  • Mainly HTML generation

Mobile Developers

• Categories of mobile development:
  • Native app developers
  • Developers bringing traditional web sites/apps to mobile
  • Web to native - PhoneGap
• Integrate device emulation tools, build/deploy tools
• Deploying to Heroku/Azure
• Dealing with different form factors (variety of display sizes for Android/iOS apps)

Cloud Developers

• Packaging/deploying to various cloud back ends

API Tools

• • Documenting
  • API Compliance
  • API versioning/evolution
  • Tooling driven by API - code completion based on API definition
  • Both JavaScript and web service APIs

End users of apps built with Orion

• Bug reporting/feedback
• UserVoice
• Collecting usage data
• Integrate with existing tools

Adopters

• Building tools on top of Orion
• Embedding parts of Orion in their own applications
• Integration via linking (inbound or outbound)

What will Orion initially focus on?

• Naturally going to target giant apps via self-hosting
• Smaller site developers typically have lower tooling expectations so most likely initial audience
• Identify high value integrations that will offer the biggest initial benefit for various groups