X-Git-Url: http://git.shadowcat.co.uk/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?p=catagits%2FCatalyst-Runtime.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=lib%2FCatalyst%2FManual%2FIntro.pod;h=32e2ba18e04088e87789341c325c2075c80b2393;hp=c237c71502425362bb94c9df6d94286fd9bf9791;hb=1c34f703cbd82cddceea95593001a579e1d5f646;hpb=129cfe74a36f5125d04dfedeb5194336b90faa22 diff --git a/lib/Catalyst/Manual/Intro.pod b/lib/Catalyst/Manual/Intro.pod index c237c71..32e2ba1 100644 --- a/lib/Catalyst/Manual/Intro.pod +++ b/lib/Catalyst/Manual/Intro.pod @@ -4,87 +4,102 @@ Catalyst::Manual::Intro - Introduction to Catalyst =head1 DESCRIPTION -This is a brief overview of why and how to use Catalyst. It explains how -Catalyst works and shows how to get a simple application up and running quickly. +This is a brief introduction to Catalyst. It explains the most important +features of how Catalyst works and shows how to get a simple application +up and running quickly. For an introduction (without code) to Catalyst +itself, and why you should be using it, see L. +For a systematic step-by-step introduction to writing an application +with Catalyst, see L. =head2 What is Catalyst? Catalyst is an elegant web application framework, extremely flexible yet -extremely simple. It's similar to Ruby on Rails, Spring (Java) and L, -upon which it was originally based. +extremely simple. It's similar to Ruby on Rails, Spring (Java), and +L, upon which it was originally based. Its most important +design philosphy is to provide easy access to all the tools you need to +develop web applications, with few restrictions on how you need to use +these tools. Under Catalyst, it is always possible to do things in a +different way. However, this does mean that it is always possible to do +things in a different way. Other web frameworks are simpler to use and +easy to get up and running, but achieve this by locking the programmer +into a single set of tools. Catalyst's emphasis on flexibility means +that you have to think more to use it. We view this as a feature. =head3 MVC -Catalyst follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern, allowing you to -easily separate concerns, like content, presentation, and flow control, into -separate modules. This separation allows you to modify code that handles one -concern without affecting code that handles the others. Catalyst promotes the -re-use of existing Perl modules that already handle common web application -concerns well. +Catalyst follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern, +allowing you to easily separate concerns, like content, presentation, +and flow control, into separate modules. This separation allows you to +modify code that handles one concern without affecting code that handles +the others. Catalyst promotes the re-use of existing Perl modules that +already handle common web application concerns well. -Here's how the M, V, and C map to those concerns, with examples of well-known -Perl modules you may want to use for each. +Here's how the M, V, and C map to those concerns, with examples of +well-known Perl modules you may want to use for each. =over 4 =item * B -Access and modify content (data). L, L, L... +Access and modify content (data). L, L, +L, L... =item * B -Present content to the user. L