reminds me that i forgot to add this property to the app.properties of antville ... thanks!

well, although the documentation is far from being complete, i don't think we have to be ashamed of it and surely can point to it from time to time. so here's a lot about property files.

I'm against setting this in app.properties (of Antville or any other application). This property should be set Helma-wide in server.properties and not be messed with on the application level. I just added it to the build skeleton server.properties file so it'll be in the next release.

i tried to find a default or dummy entry with sherlock and there was none.

helma.org has a search engine, too.

ad "smtp in app.properties is a big no-no": how about disabling the smtp property in app.properties, then?

Disabling the smtp property in app.properties would be wrong IMO. Here's why: You never can force sanity on users, but you can (and must) lead with good example. So it's absolutely nice to be able to set the smtp property per application, but the default solution (and the thing we propose by adding a prefab entry) is to define it in server.properties. Once the smtp server is set in the server.properties, people won't even think about setting it in app.properties (unless that's what they want and need to do, of course).

So the rule is to not to impose any artificial restrictions, even if you allow people to take the less-than-ideal solution (like setting the smtp server for each individual application).

The same is also true in a much bigger way for application architecture: You can't have a system where people are "forced" to utilize a good application structure. All you can do is to lay the foundations so that a sane architecture is possible in the first place, and than (equally important) lead with good example.

Leading with good example in application design is an area where we still have an awful lot of work to do, because we're ourselves just finding out what works and what doesn't.

okay, no more stupid questions from here without searching your doc. promised.

there is still a lot to ask after you've read some docs... and even more that should be corrected. and i am certainly looking forward for your feedback. it's really good. thanks.