document updated 12 years ago, on Jun 11, 2012
I use the term "half-baked" to refer to web-based software (like Mediawiki or Redmine) that I use in two different modes:
- on my own work laptop, I use the tools in normal (dynamic) mode
- it's possible to dump the dynamic data to static HTML pages via a script, and the static pages can be uploaded to public webserver, where the content can be viewed by my coworkers / peers when my work laptop is offline
The difference between "half-baked" and fully baked is that both modes have to coexist. Some extra code has to be written to bake an app who normal use case is fresh use.
The advantage of this solution is that:
- for my personal work computer, I have very few limits on what tools I can install
- for the server, it needs no fancy software whatsoever, just a bare-minimum webserver
The downside of this solution is that:
- Most of the software I want to use is designed to be collaborative, intended to be used by a team. Yet, when located only on my laptop, they are almost strictly limited to single-person use.
Yet... this provides an uprgade path! If the team eventually decides that my choice of tools is a good idea, and that other team members should be able to use the same tools, it shouldn't be hard to transfer my existing data to a central server.
(and an excellent way to convince them is to show how much it helps me, and let them see what sort of things I personally use it for)