Programmer(s) needed

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Gunness
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Programmer(s) needed

#1 Post by Gunness »

Lest anyone should miss it, here's my current posting on the CASA front page:

A plea for assistance!

The current version of CASA is hopelessly outdated in the technical department and lacks the most fundamental options expected by modern users. And I won't make any mention of the numerous broken links that keep showing up. Current updating is fully by hand, it's really tiresome work and it just creates too many bugs. And I'm running out of steam as there are so many more things I would like to do with the site.

A good friend of mine has been working on a new version, on and off, for several years (and in my euphoria, I might just have indicated on a couple of occasions that something new and exciting was brewing).

Alas, said friend is all caught up in work, and at the current speed a new & much needed version of CASA could be quite far away. As my own programming skills are rusty, to put it mildly, I would really appreciate it if there were somebody out there willing to lend a hand with the coding. So far, the new version is being developed with PHP5, MySQL 4 and Subversion 1.4. Anyone interested in assisting is very, very welcome. So, please get in touch!
Mark
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#2 Post by Mark »

Sorry, can't help you there. I'm a complete legasthenic when it comes to coding. But actually, apart from the site being a little slow sometimes, I see nothing much wrong with it. Also, isn't 'old school' this site's middle name? :-)
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Gunness
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#3 Post by Gunness »

Mark wrote:Sorry, can't help you there. I'm a complete legasthenic when it comes to coding. But actually, apart from the site being a little slow sometimes, I see nothing much wrong with it. Also, isn't 'old school' this site's middle name? :-)
Yeah, this is "old school" all right :D For what it is, the site seems to work okay, and there's nothing "wrong" with it as such. But really, this is 2007, and there's not even a bloody search function here! Every other emulation site has one of these ;) But apart from that...
1. The site is a pain in the behind to update
2. I would really love to offer something more, such as detailed info, game descriptions and user comments, so people would know what game to pick next.
3. I'm slowly starting to incorporate modern IF, and I think this will open up for all sorts of nifty cross-linking opportunities.

As for the site's slowness: I've noticed it. Apparently the servers hosting CASA are overloaded (probably not due to us!). We should be getting an upgrade in September - hopefully this will speed up the forum in particular.
FredrikR
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#4 Post by FredrikR »

(Yeah, I know this thread is old, but CASA still seems to be in the same state as back then)

The problem is, programming a web site takes *time*. And people don't have too much of that resouce these days.

I recommend having a close look at Oracle Application Express.

A monkey could learn to program in it. Development is lightning fast and a lot of fun. Most of the development is wizard-driven, which makes it really fast, but when there's something you really want to do, and it's not supported by the wizards, you can always do it yourself in PL/SQL and/or Javascript.

There are companies that will host your application for a small fee. However, if you plan to handle large binary objects such as video or sound files, it will get more expensive. You can host it yourself, using Oracle XE (Express Edition = free Oracle database version).

Anyone who has a working knowledge of Oracle, SQL and PL/SQL can create their first application in this tool within a day or two. Seriously.
http://IFGuide.ramsberg.net - A Beginner's Guide to Playing Interactive Fiction
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Gunness
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#5 Post by Gunness »

Hmmm... interesting. My problem is that my programming expertise is somewhat limited. I can do some php and MySQL, but have absolutely zilch knowledge of Oracle. Are there any other capable persons out there?

But I'm glad to see your post. I hope this can help the site move forward somehow.
Mr Creosote
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#6 Post by Mr Creosote »

Um.... is this still an issue? I used to earn my living as a database programmer (Postgres, MSSQL, Oracle, SQLite and MySQL) until a few years ago and I'm also equally proficient in Perl and PHP (in theory, I could also write a CGI site in C, but I doubt that's really an idea anyone would seriously consider ;)), so I could lend a hand. Depending on how big your plans are, of course.

Examples of sites I've programmed (on a non-professional basis):
http://www.goodolddays.net/
http://www.bananenflanke.net (in German)

A forum script I've written (so that you can see some of my code):
http://www.spamboard.net

If you're interested, let me know. I have to ask one thing, though: I don't want my whole life indexed by Google, so if you send me an e-mail, it would be great if you wouldn't use your GMail address.
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#7 Post by Gunness »

Hi there!
Yes, this is still very much an issue. The site is in the same sad technical state as it has been for years. And something needs to be done.

Earlier in this thread, Fredrik has proposed an Oracle Application Express solution (sic!). It might be a viable option, but nothing has been decided upon yet. Your programming skills have a nice ring to them, though, and I'm certainly open to suggestions :)

But I can send you some additional details. I'm afraid both my email accounts are hosted by Gmail, so if you'd rather not have me use these, it's either pm'ing or setting up a new mail account. Which of course is a possibility. Apart from Gmail, are there any other "don't use" mail hosts?
Mr Creosote
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#8 Post by Mr Creosote »

The board's IM system is fine. If you prefer e-mail, you can contact me at mr_creosote at the first domain name I wrote in the earlier post. I'm ok with anything but Google (sorry to be so picky...). Third option (as far as I'm concerned) is Jabber - my address there is MrCreosote@jabber.ccc.de.

Just let me know what you have, want or require and we can discuss it.

Edit: One thing I forgot. Although I'm never too happy with Google, I'll accept it if you've got a PGP key so that we can encrypt the exchange and if you're then promising not to store the decrypted versions on Google again (which would kind of defeat the purpose of the whole exercise ;)).
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#9 Post by dave »

I can offer some help if needed - though I'm not a php expert.
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#10 Post by Gunness »

Fredrik, Mr. Creosote, and Dave - I've set up a special subforum for the four of us for discussing this further. I hope you'll join me :)
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