Go.com Content Engine Now Open Source

webword writes: "Did it slip under the radar that Go.com's content engine is now Open Source? The engine powers sites like ESPN.com, NFL.com, ABCNews.com and GO.com. Not too shabby." More to the point, it powers Mr. Showbiz, one of my favorite movie sites. The license is based on the Apache License.

Comments

Missing the point.

[Matt2000]

I think the comments posted so far are missing the point, this is not simply a search engine system being open sourced but a content management system.

This is a super important piece of software for a major website to have available for free. Sure you can serve up a zillion hits with Apache, but how do you manage the pipeline of getting structured content from writers and artists onto that site in a timely and efficient manner?

It's a thorny problem and the solutions available now are very expensive and I hear not that great. This coupled with Apache and the free XML tools that are out there now should combine to make a killer, free, web suite a reality.

Hotnutz.com - Funny

Why to use Tea (according to Go)

[TheInternet]

The text below is from the TeaTemplateLanguage.pdf file (240k). This information does not seem to be on any of the site's pages (requires a bit more digging), so I think it makes sense to bring up to the surface a bit here...


Why use Tea?

In general, neither developers nor page designers author Tea templates. The goal is that they be written and maintained by technical producers who are liaisons between developers and designers.

Tea resulted from several years of experience with other web page building mechanisms. Most web-based applications start out with HTML tags embedded in code, whether it be C, Perl, or Java. This approach is adequate for small or first-time projects because it doesn't take very long to develop.

[...]

Rather than embedding an existing language into something like an ASP or JSP, Tea is a language specially designed to meet the requirements of a templating system. It is safe, simple, efficient, and powerful.

In one instance, Tea is integrated with a special servlet. This servlet gives Tea templates control over page building, while retaining strong ties to a back-end application written by a Java developer. While this servlet provides functionality similar to that of JSPs, Tea enforces correct model-view separation because of the intentional language limitations. Although this is also the suggested separation model in JSPs, it cannot be enforced.


They also seem to put an emphasis on simplicity. The loops and output statements are really clean. The aforementioned PDF sheds a lot of light on this. Another interesting note:


Tea templates compile into Java class files and execute just the same within a Java Virtual Machine. The Tea compiler does not generate intermediate Java files and hand them off to a Java compiler, but it instead generates the class files directly. Still, the resulting class files are as efficient as any handwritten Java code.

Because no Java compiler is used, Tea can be distributed much more easily. All that's required is a Java2 runtime environment. Sun's JRE can be used, but the SDK isn't necessary.


The bad thing is that the IDE only runs on Windows.

- Scott

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Scott Stevenson