use Perl

Well, two months have sped past and my tenure at Interapy is almost at an end. It's been... interesting. I had hoped for a more challenging time, but I was slowly pushed back to writing HTML pages. At first I used the Template Toolkit, but at the end it was decided to use the CGI module. (It's still used from within the TT-code, but I think it will be pulled back into the main perl code shortly after my departure)

Still, It was a new start and a very interesting place to work, especially the matter that they workied with. I have gotten a better look on what psychologists do.

On to the next job. But the question-mark in the title shows exactly what I currently know about that. Nothing has been said or (what I suspect) done about finding a new project. Luckily it won't affect my pay, so I will lie back and see what comes after easter.

So a happy easter to you all, and see you on the flipside.

...is a programmer with a social life. And sadly, I'm one of those. I'd like to live, breathe, dream, eat and drink programming, but my social 'obligations' keep me from taking that day-long break and jacking in to the system with some Jolt and vi. Two birthday-visits this week-end and multi-hour long phonecalls to my girlie in the UK (I'm in the Netherlands, she's not. Bummer)

And the commute (1.5 hours each way, so 3 hours each day) to work doesn't help either. There isn't always enough space to sit on the train, so doing some work there won't work always either.

I know, I know... excuses, excuses... *sigh* - Maybe I just need a good whack to the head...

Practise, practise, practise.

I've been out of it too long. I need practise. And working here on the user-interface is all well and good, but I still need something for the hours I'm not sleeping. So enter 'UserBoard' (okay, lame name, but it's exactly what it is.)

I've been a member of a couple of Play-By-Email games for some time now, and up to a couple of weeks ago all was peachy. But now rumors of our ListGroup server going commercial (I won't say names, but it starts with a 'Y' and ends in '!'...) and us having to pay for their services has made me decide to look at other angles.

And I'm a programmer, so what angle do I look at? Right: Making my own server. And not only that, but writing my own server from scratch.

Sure, I've looked at all the available ListServers out there, but they don't do it for me. That and the fact that I just need something to make.

So, I've begun UserBoard, and I've decided to take a marginally different approach to the other's I've found, and that is to concentrate on the web-interface from the start, and assume (as is the case right now for the groups I know) that nobody uses the e-mail commands to do their administration.

And version 1 will be just that: a first version, to be improved on (or totally rewritten) as needs be.

So, I've set up the SourceForge group (UserBoard) and am writing a first draft of the functional design as a guidebook how I think it should look at the end...

Wish me luck!

Well, I've dallied a few times with Perl (and perl-esque languages like PHP), so I knew a bit about the weirdness of syntax and the wide-spread evangelism. But I must say that getting this project at Interapy has made me a quick Perl afficinado.

I Like it.

I am slowly getting drawn into the elegance of the whole language and the object-oriented approach used with it.

Mind you, I'm not nearly close to being at a comfortable level yet, in fact, I have been out of practise for a few months, so my whole attention right now is bent on getting back in swing again with my programming in general.

Wish me luck!