[site-engine-dev] Work in progress and resources

[MJ Ray]

Hi all,

I've not heard from some of you for a long time.  Are you still out there?


WORK IN PROGRESS

Well, as soon as I get chance, I'll commit the new database interface to CVS
and follow through with the rest of the changes that it implies.  I'll also
add the two new CGI modules, that handle cookie generation and form
validation, although they both still need some work.

One thing that could be done by anyone is eyeing up the code and trying to
see where there are common structures which are candidates for moving out
into a library.  I suspect there are some, but when you're working so close
to the code, it's hard to see them.


RESOURCES

The PLT authors have just published their new Scheme textbook online.  It's
called "How to Use Scheme" and it can be found online at
http://www.htus.org/ although it's still incomplete.  This is intended as a
more practical companion for the computer science-y "How to Design Programs"
at http://www.htdp.org/ Of course, it depends quite heavily on the PLT
Scheme (downloadable for many systems from http://www.plt-scheme.org/) and
I'm not sure whether it's using the old v103, or the new v200.  Hopefully
it's v200, which looks much better.

Yes, this means that I'm casting the eye over PLT Scheme again.  I'm likely
to make the current cgi module behave a bit more like the PLT CGI one, at
least superficially.  The database module could be rewritten to use their
database drivers without too much trouble, I believe.  Really, I'm just
hedging my bets until some of you have done enough Scheme so that we can all
make a decision.


NEXT TASKS

I need to make a new installable version of the code for tsw some time in
the next week or so.  This will be the first downloadable release of the
code too, hopefully.  Although I'd love to rewrite the admin interface
before that, I don't think it's going to happen.  Stabilising the above
changes will be quite enough to do!

Anyway, any questions?  How are the newcomers getting on with learning
Scheme?  Questions on Scheme, CGI, HTTP, how not to design databases, or
even site-engine are all welcome :-)

-- 
MJR