[Catalyst] Wishlist for 2006

[Geoffrey Ferrari]

I've a request: better introductory documentation. Catalyst is an  
advanced framework that builds on established CPAN modules. In other  
words, it's really difficult for beginners to understand.

I've read as many Catalyst docs, tutorials and articles as I can  
find, but I don't find they answer the really basic questions. Like:

What is catalyst? (Please answer this one without using the words 'An  
elegant MVC framework')

What are all these directories that get created when I run  
'catalyst.pl MyApp'? What is their intended function? How much can I  
mess around with them

So how do I serve some static webpages alongside my dynamic ones?

Can I split my templates up into subdirectories under the 'root'  
directory, or will catalyst not be able to find them?

OK, so I've seen an article that explains how to get one view up and  
running. Now I want another view. What do I do? Add it somehow to the  
first one or create a second one? Does a second view require a second  
view module in addition to MyApp::View::TT? What does MyApp::View::TT  
do anyway?

When catalyst is run under mod_perl, does it start to control all the  
event handlers? Say, for instance, my current setup uses  
Apache::AuthCookie to control authentication. Can I combine  
AuthCookie with Catalyst, or must I use a Catalyst authentication  
plugin?

Suppose I want to have a basic site running under http, and a more  
complete site running under https, using the same host name. Is it  
possible, and if so how?

Ocassionally I'll want to submit data using forms. How do catalyst  
users handle this problem? Do they have two separate URLS, one to get  
the form and one to post to? Or do have a single URL, a single  
action, and check in their code whether it's a 'GET' or a 'POST'  
request.

Without necessarily writing all the code, how would you set up a  
averagely complicated site? Which modules would you define? Where  
would you put them? Where you put your other stuff, like  
configuration files, templates, images, utility classes, and anything  
else you might require?

Some answers to these basic kinds of question would be really useful.