Slashdot Mirror

I completely agreed with Graham's article. I know his tool of choice is LISP, but as I was reading the text, my epiphany with Python kept coming to my mind. I used to hack PHP too, but I don't any more. PHP is better than the alternatives in the Web-building niche, but it's not either as general-purpose or as scalable (in terms of project size) as Python --my toy newsbot in my .sig is 100% pure Python, all 20kLOC of it... I could go on and on about Python, but that will hardly be as persuasive as going over to python.org, reading the tutorial and writing some simple short project in py. You will be converted in no time...

ah, why would /. need to recode in php when they could just use phpslash...

Look again, it uses PHPSlash.

1. Slash: The code behind Slashdot. Uses PERL as its underlying technology and is built on Linux. Requires Apache.
2. Zope: Commercial Open Source software which uses Python as its code base. Good support and training available, but the community appears to be lacking.
3. phpNuke: Underlies a lot of the free weblogs on the net at this time. Built on PHP coding and requires Apache. Some personality issues here, but a strong product.
4. PostNuke: Underlies many sites on the web, including both commercial and amatuer. An off-shoot of phpNuke, so built on PHP coding and requires Apache. VERY good project management and a solid timeline. Some recent deaths at the project have placed the team under stress.
5. phpSlash: A PHP port of the Slash system (one of the older ones, and as such is built on PHP coding. Seems solid, but lacks many of the modern features of slash.

There are many others, including (but not limited to): Nope, Druphal, KorWebLog, etc. This is still a crowded marketplace and people are trying to reinvent the wheel here often. Check out this site and do a search on CMS to get an idea of the diversity.

Best advice from my limited experience so far:

1. Decide which language best fits the way you program (Perl and PHP have roots in C/C++, Python is more like Basic)
2. Decide what features are drop-dead critical for your site (i.e. comment system, moderation system, workflow management, shopping cart)
3. Decide if you want commercial support if something goes wrong
4. Decide how much you want to spend (even if you do not spend on a system, you will wind up with costs for hosting, books, training, etc.)

In the end, I think I have decided on PostNuke. But your choice may be very different.

I'm a GPL advocate, and I agree with you. I will always argue that the GPL is the better license. But I will also alway agree that it's your choice, as a developer, to choose your own license.

Nice ta' meet you. You are the type of GPL advocate that I like to talk to! (In fact, you are the type of GPL Advocate that I talked to in the first place that explained the GPL to me fairly completly, pros and cons included. That got me into supporting projects like Alliance OS Project, Crystal Space 3D, PHPSlash, and a couple others that I've thrown my hat in with, either by using them or being and active member. Now could ya convince others to become 'good' advocates? :-)

It might seem rather Orwellian, but my great fear is that these sometime unruly discussions about software licensing may, in fact, wend their way to the Senate floor. They have, in fact: witness the DMCA. To anyone who has stinking rightious bug up their ass (which, ahem, includes me), I'd just like to say: let's remember which principles matter most. Good life, health, and happiness. Let's keep these cauldrons of principled "screw-you" stew from boiling over into misguided legislation. Really. Legislation, by definition, defines what is and isn't criminal . Let's not go there.

I totally agree. This should never become an issue of legislation, and the DMCA should have never happened (jees, I can't remember talking to anyone yet that actually even so much as plays Devil's Advocate for DMCA in a discussion!), and most certainly it should never get any more draconian than it is now!!!!!

And if we're not going there, then let's not get so uptight about disagreements about software licensing. I mean really. What are people afraid of?

Religion. :-) It's like anything else - when someone suggests that thier believe system may be flawed in any way, some people go on the attack. Then there are those that take thier system of beliefs and automatically apply it to others (I've been guilty of that one before - but, as I got older and started traveling alot, I saw the light. Live and let live.) But in all honesty, to some people the GPL isn't an issue of rights, but an almost full blown religious issue, no less powerful than some overzealous Christians views of other religions! (Luckly, not all 'bad' GPL advocates are that way. A very small (but vocal ;-) percentage is that way.)

Oh, and add one more group to my list of people who piss me off - people who say there aren't any over zealous GPL advocates out there! (Just kidding...)

Dude! The LiViD link links to the wrong place! You should check your linksto make sure they go to the right place.

Perhaps someonecould write an open source Perl script that checks links and put it in Slashcode so that CmdrTaco never links to the wrong place again.

Or perhaps Microsoft just put some smart tag code in Slash.

Yes I know is is somewhat offtopic, but CmdrTaco did link to the wrong place with the LiViD link. www.livid.org goes to someguy's homepage while www.linuxvideo.orrg goes to LiViD. So this is ontopic. And it makes fun of Smart Tags.

--Volrath50

I'm using PHPSlash for my Developer's Diaries section of MidnightRyder.Com. Actually, it runs the entire site :-) Anyway - it makes life simple to do something like a quick entry - just type it up in plain text or HTML, and hit submit - and your page is updated. I like it, you might want to check it out.

There are, however, some downsides - requires PHP4 (no big deal) and a MySQL database to power it (which might be a bigger deal for ya, depending on your ISP / Host). And it's probably a little over powered for just running an online-diary. But it sure saves you tons of time on updating pages!

And, of course, there are tons of other alternatives to that - /.'s engine can be used for the same thing (PHPSlash is a somewhat direvitive of the Slashcode - not much anymore, but, still the same idea). Look around a little bit at those two sites, and if they just look like too much effort, search for 'Blog' or 'Online Diary' in google or yahoo, and find all the rest of the cool little scripts for doing this out there!

Warning: this is a plug; I am a member of the PHPSlash core team. Check out PHPSlash. The current release doesn't do users or moderation, but it *does* have templates, an extensible class library (in OOP PHP), session management and some features that I believe are unique, like the ability to file stories in more than one sections or topics. PHPSlash used to be a port of Slashcode, but it's now a 100% clean-room implementation, written from the ground up for PHP.