in reply to Re: Re: Writing a web message board from scratch
in thread Writing a web message board from scratch

Let's assume that for some reason you have to write it from scratch and re-using an existing "web message board" codebase is not an option - all you can use is well-tested CPAN modules like DBI and CGI.pm etc.
Well, SlashCode and E2 are both in the same status as CPAN modules, and are both readily available for stealing parts or just seeing "how you do it". In particular, Slashcode runs http://www.slashdot.com (a high-traffic, high-visibility site), and is highly reconfigurable: enough that you wouldn't recognize the externals.

It's perfectly OK to "reinvent wheels", presuming you study existing art first. Please don't ask us to spoonfeed to you what these guys have already discovered. Check out prior art first!

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

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Re: •Re: Re: Re: Writing a web message board from scratch
by cascade_fx (Sexton) on Apr 19, 2002 at 17:12 UTC
    In particular, Slashcode runs http://www.slashdot.com (a high-traffic, high-visibility site), and is highly reconfigurable: enough that you wouldn't recognize the externals.
    This is exactly the argument that I made with a colleague for an Intranet/Message Board/Knowledgebase. We are adapting Slash to this and it is working out quite nicely. In fact, we are eagerly anticipating the new release which will include an automated graphic upload so that our tutorials have a less kludged process for uploading screenshots. THAT and the new plugin architecture is rife with possibilities.... something not in Slash? No need to throw the baby out with the bathwater, just code a plugin to add the functionality and still keep all that is right with it. Great software package and development architecture.

    As far as making the pitch to management. I wrote a proposal and did a walkthrough of some popular Slash sites (Slashdot.org, of course, as well as Plastic.com). The selling point had to be the University of Utah's Engineering labs computer site (http://www.cade.utah.edu/). They use Slash for very similar purposes to ours and have modified the heck out of it.

    cascadefx

    Update (4/19/2002 2:45pm EST): Added link to University of Utah's College of Engineering Computing Facility

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Re: •Re: Re: Re: Writing a web message board from scratch
by Kolyan (Beadle) on Apr 19, 2002 at 14:03 UTC

    I'm afraid that although it's extremely useful to study existing code, designing it by yourself is completely different by it's nature.

    It seems what he's not talking about how to get the job done and not about the reinventing the wheels.

    But, assuming that it's time to create your own, HOW do you design your programs?

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Re: •Re: Re: Re: Writing a web message board from scratch
by tomazos (Deacon) on Apr 19, 2002 at 13:54 UTC
    :)

    I guess my question isn't as much to do with the specifics of writing a web message board as it has to do with the general process of beginning a project of about that size.

    Let's supose I want to write a widget web application in perl. Noone has ever written a widget web application before so there is no existing code to study, only building blocks that are not immediately obvious how to combine.

    I'm after general ideas about how to go about planning the implementation of a widget web application.

    I hope I'm making sense. :(

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      Let's supose I want to write a widget web application in perl. Noone has ever written a widget web application before so there is no existing code to study,
      That also is not true. You need to look around a bit. OpenInteract has widgets. One could argue that the building blocks of Splash in Template toolkit allowed me to craft the new http://www.stonehenge.com design in far less time than I could have from scratch. Both SlashCode and Everything2 have many widgets from which to build bigger pages. And there's the whole HTML::Mason content engine schemes.

      The problem is not that there's not enough models to steal from, but that there are perhaps too many! Please don't start from scratch! See if you can reuse all or parts of these!

      -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

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