A Web Forum is Born
14-Apr-2008 00:49 Filed in: REBOL
General | REBOL/Forum
Right here and now somewhere in Cyberspace (or rather
in an AltME world) a new web forum is being born.
There's been a lot of debate on how to build one and
why we want to build one and why the heck we aren't
just using phpBB or some such, like everyone
else. Well, it wouldn't be much of a
REBOLlion if we were, would it?
In this early stage, there have not been much else discussion about what technologies and existing database solutions to use (there are several interesting REBOL database solutions up and coming however). So I came up with a range of ideas for this web forum to make it a little different from every one else's web forums and all this came together to a plan:
It will be written in entirely REBOL and it will be possible to run it on Cheyenne. We want to showcase how simple and quickly you can build a web solution with REBOL. I also want to blog about the development of this forum solution as we want to see how long it takes to build it and how development progresses among community members. I personally began work on the sources on April 11th 2008, i.e. three days ago as of this writing, working on specs and certain basics, like HTML rendering and style sheets. I will only be working on it occasionally from now on, but as it's a group effort, by fellow members of the REBOL3 AltME world, I hope and expect it to progress, at the times where I'm only a spectator.
Features:
Very small source code base. It's expected to stay under 50 kb.
No HTML sources. All HTML necessary for the forum is created during runtime using a dialect, compressing source size even further. This dialect is well under way as a separate project that I will discuss in detail later.
File based database. Uses the file system as a database, rather than a dedicated database engine. Easy to mirror, backup or move.
Very clean layout. I'm tired of those webforums that look like grafitti walls and 5x10 cm avatars. Aren't you? It's what people say, that counts.
Limited feature set. It has a well-defined and a small set of features and nothing more. Therefore the first version will not have specific user accounts, spam protection and such. We will do those things later, so they can be perfected.
The code name is currently REBOL/Forum, but the name is likely to change. The URL for it is not public yet, as I cannot guarantee any uptime and there's not much to see anyway. Full specs are going to be posted soon.
Code will be stored in a local DevBase server soon. There is work under way to make DevBase server friendly to install on anyone's PC, so we can finally see it operating outside of the confines of REBOL Technologies. When the code is stored there, you will be able to get access to the REBOL/Forum source, edit it and submit changes to me and qualified community members. This enables us to update the forum sources rapidly with your help. But I hope to make the sources publicly available even if DevBase is not ready for prime-time.
You see, Devbase is also a little rebellion against CVS, SVN and other source repositories. In the end, the entire forum system from code storage, testing, communication between developers, to serving the forum on a web server, will all be REBOL based. Pretty cool, eh? And it's a true testament to what REBOL is acclaimed for doing so well: It does everything, and it does it in its own rebellious way.
Have a day.
In this early stage, there have not been much else discussion about what technologies and existing database solutions to use (there are several interesting REBOL database solutions up and coming however). So I came up with a range of ideas for this web forum to make it a little different from every one else's web forums and all this came together to a plan:
It will be written in entirely REBOL and it will be possible to run it on Cheyenne. We want to showcase how simple and quickly you can build a web solution with REBOL. I also want to blog about the development of this forum solution as we want to see how long it takes to build it and how development progresses among community members. I personally began work on the sources on April 11th 2008, i.e. three days ago as of this writing, working on specs and certain basics, like HTML rendering and style sheets. I will only be working on it occasionally from now on, but as it's a group effort, by fellow members of the REBOL3 AltME world, I hope and expect it to progress, at the times where I'm only a spectator.
Features:
Very small source code base. It's expected to stay under 50 kb.
No HTML sources. All HTML necessary for the forum is created during runtime using a dialect, compressing source size even further. This dialect is well under way as a separate project that I will discuss in detail later.
File based database. Uses the file system as a database, rather than a dedicated database engine. Easy to mirror, backup or move.
Very clean layout. I'm tired of those webforums that look like grafitti walls and 5x10 cm avatars. Aren't you? It's what people say, that counts.
Limited feature set. It has a well-defined and a small set of features and nothing more. Therefore the first version will not have specific user accounts, spam protection and such. We will do those things later, so they can be perfected.
The code name is currently REBOL/Forum, but the name is likely to change. The URL for it is not public yet, as I cannot guarantee any uptime and there's not much to see anyway. Full specs are going to be posted soon.
Code will be stored in a local DevBase server soon. There is work under way to make DevBase server friendly to install on anyone's PC, so we can finally see it operating outside of the confines of REBOL Technologies. When the code is stored there, you will be able to get access to the REBOL/Forum source, edit it and submit changes to me and qualified community members. This enables us to update the forum sources rapidly with your help. But I hope to make the sources publicly available even if DevBase is not ready for prime-time.
You see, Devbase is also a little rebellion against CVS, SVN and other source repositories. In the end, the entire forum system from code storage, testing, communication between developers, to serving the forum on a web server, will all be REBOL based. Pretty cool, eh? And it's a true testament to what REBOL is acclaimed for doing so well: It does everything, and it does it in its own rebellious way.
Have a day.
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