RE: Community Teaching Project

[Ozymandias]

Definitely. I'm a systems administrator, not a developer, but I play one on TV.

Why limit the project, though? It shouldn't be that difficult to create an application that organizes and indexes ANYTHING, from books and CDs to flowers to pigs. In fact, if we simply create a databasing engine and a front end, we could create a standard module for any type of index.

For example, you take the base application and write a module for it that defines what the objects are, what the index key is, and other useful bits. It could be from something as simple as a text file to as complex as a program extension with added functionality. So we could create (to follow your example) a CD Library module that simply defines the key fields (Title, Artist, Track listings, Year, Label, Personal rating 1 - 10) or we could create a module that defines all that AND includes the functionality to populate the fields from CDDB. Someone else might code a module to define MP3s - and the extended functionality is to create playlists for XMMS or WinAmp. A book module with the extended functionality of searching $bookseller_of_choice for other works by the same author, or (later on) eBook versions of the title.

Who needs a CD or book manager when you can have both?

For site hosting, I'm sure server space could be found; I don't think Perl Monks should actually host it. I'd be in favor of posting the code to Perl Monks at every stage, though, and regular updates on how the project is working and organized in the much-debated Projects section.

- Ozymandias

[BBQ]

I don't see hosting as being an real issue. With the event of DSL, Cable, et al, I am sure that many project members would be willing to setup a staging area and a production area at home. I would gladly do it on my own machines, but if you try tracerouting any site in Brazil, you'll see that the backbone just makes in inviable. :o/ The offer still stands though. I can spare some space on my P200 (currently running SuSE Linux 6.4 and serving as a firewall / gateway).

What would we need? A dedicated box or just the usual Apache/FTP/SSH/MySQL combo?

What I find hard is pointing out (a) project manager(s). The manager job alone would probably be harder than the coding work.

#!/home/bbq/bin/perl
# Trust no1!

[Ozymandias]

That's the point of the project. There are, I think, several project managers who hang out here; I am one, I just don't manage development projects much. The idea is to teach developers how project management works, and what it's like to be a part of a "professional" project. Not just a CD and book organizer, although I do kind of like the idea for a number of reasons.

What I like about this is the possibility for really getting some of the people here involved. We have our fair share of Saints and Gurus; vroom, merlyn, quite a few others who do this for a living or are stars in the Perl community. We also have quite a few who only code for fun, and we have still more who really WANT to work as a developer, but they've never been able to really get started. IRL I like to hire entry-level people for jobs and then actually bring them along to better positions; I've even hired high-school kids as low-end technicians and helpdesk support. This is a chance to do the same in the Perl community.

- Ozymandias

[xeh007]

As far as organization goes, we could probably go with something as simple as a restrictive CVS setup. Everyone would have an assigned section, and could only do a write lock for code from that section.

My school has about 5 linux boxes that arent going to be in use at all this summer. It might take a little work, but we could get permission to use one as a dedicated box.

-Jules Kongslie

[e-mail]

[Ozymandias]

Hardware's not the problem, I think I can swing that and free bandwidth, besides.

If anybody's interested, /msg me or jcwren. Let's see who's interested.

- Ozymandias