[ABE.pm] Fwd: [Lvlug] Programming Project, maybe in Ruby

[Randy Kramer]

Oops, wanted to get to the abe.pm and sig, also (to see if we can drum
up additional interest).


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Randy Kramer <rhkramer at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2004 11:23:24 -0500
Subject: Re: [Lvlug] Programming Project, maybe in Ruby
To: swf001 at lvc.edu
Cc: lvlug <lvlug at thelinuxlink.net>


On Thu, 2 Dec 2004 14:00:23 -0500, Scott Ferguson <scottwferg at gmail.com> wrote:
> Schedule will be tight due to working over vacation, but I'll be home
> from the middle of December until the middle of January.

Scott,

So far you may be the only person who has expressed unqualified
interest.  (I'm not sure about Ricardo (he said he'd only work on a
proprietary project if he got paid, but didn't say whether he wanted
to work on this project if GPL'd (or paid)), and Pat merely
recommended darcs.

Maybe others will get interested as time goes on.

Anyway, thought I'd give you a quick update and ask you some questions.

Quick update: As I started digging into Ruby, I found Instiki (a wiki)
and am (lightly) digging into it (first from a user perspective).
Perhaps the code will help me learn or otherwise be useful -- I'll
have to dig into the Ruby license to find out whether it is open
source or not (I have a hint that you can choose GPL or the Ruby
license, so its openness sounds promising).

I'd like to know more about your interests and capabilities.  If you
prefer to write to me offlist (your choice), use rhkramer at gmail.com.
Some specific questions:

   * What are you studying in school (is your major computer related)?

   * Experience in Ruby?  Other languages?

   * Familiarity with HTML?

   * Familiarity with http web serving?  (One aspect of the project
will almost certainly be a wiki like thing, and whether we use Apache
or try to roll our own (for good reasons, only) we'll need some
knowledge / experience there.

   * How do you feel about programming in Ruby?  Would you prefer to
work in a different language?  (Which can be OK, but my current
preference is Ruby for everything, and, at the very least, Ruby to
glue the entire thing together -- but, I might be persuaded
otherwise.)

   * What do you see as motivating you to participate in a project
like this?  Fame, fortune, experience, ?   Does it depend a lot on the
particular project?  Do you have some itches that might be scratched
by something like an askSam clone, based on what you know so far?

For anyone else on the lists, although we might start a small group to
work on this project, I'm sure we'll be asking questions on abe.pm,
the lvlug, and elsewhere.

Some initial "tasks" (some things I'm rather sure we'll need -- my
preference in all cases is Ruby based stuff):

   * An (X)HTML renderer,

   * a text renderer / editor (my favorite in Linux at this time is
Nedit (for a lot of reasons, including macro capability (I built some
folding macros), GUI approach (although I generally don't like Motif /
Lesstif, but it seems when I run it on kde I don't notice the lesstif
flavor as much anymore -- not sure whether that's kde's doing or
something else)  -- I don't know if (or how easily) Nedit can be
"wrapped" to serve as a component in a system (and not sure of my
vocabulary, read on)

   * other renderers, determined as the design proceeds

   * I don't know all the right words, but some widgets (like a tree
control) and a "framework" (?) (frame?) to display the tree control,
(X)HTML renderer, test renderer/editor, etc.

   * a (simple) markup language, like that in a typical wiki, but I
know there are others out there (Instiki uses Markdown and something
else, there are a couple of efforts seemingly at standardization).  I
want something that is very unobtrusive (marked up text should be
readable as plain text) and complete.  The TWiki markup language is
(obviously?) my first choice, with extensions to deal with some things
I know are missing.

In a future email, I'll mention some more about text markups that I'm aware of.

regards,
Randy Kramer