[Actionchix] Status of new website

[Katrina Owen]

Hi everyone,

I would like to participate in lessons (if there are any), and with
anything else I could be of assistance with. Last time around I
offered to help with cleaning up html, which I am pretty good at
(albeit manually), but the process didn't seem to get as far as that.

Let me share what I do know:

I have a pretty good understanding of HTML and CSS, and (woe and
behold) I debug/develope in PHP. I am very interested in usability and
good coding practices (my bookshelf includes such titles as 'Defensive
Design for the Web', 'Designing the Obvious', 'Designing with Web
Standards', and 'User-Centered Web Design').

I have spent the past year learning java from the very basics up, and
am about ready to start getting a good grip on servlets/JSP.

I would be happy to learn python, if the linuxchix website ends up using it.

I have some experience with databases, but my strong point there (for
the moment) is designing a solid datastructure. I can get stuff out
and put stuff in using SQL, but I keep having to remind myself of the
syntax. I expect to start working seriously on Java/JDBC within the
next couple of months.

I know absolutely nothing about networking and systems administration.

I guess that pretty much sums it up.

I really want to help out, but I think I need to be given pretty
specific tasks, because the larger process seems to go above my head.

With kind regards,
Katrina


On 3/12/07, Gloria W <strangest at comcast.net> wrote:
> Hi Mary, and everyone,
>
> I wanted to be more involved back then, but I was tasked with server
> migrations at my day job, and freelance work at night, and it was a bit
> insane. I am working entirely from home now, mostly on freelance stuff,
> so I do have more time.
>
> I was wondering if we're still determined to use Zope/Plone. Since this
> time, I have migrated our entire company to something called CherryPy,
> and I find it to be more flexible, easier to use, less caching delays,
> no template restrictions, and the list goes on.
>
> I'd be very happy to actually teach it, and give you a very useful,
> functional CherryPy "instance", with basic Postgresql connectivity
> (using both Psycopg and SqlAlchemy), Template directories etc. It is
> designed in such a way that writing and rolling out a new module is very
> easy. I have done all of the authentication and cookie control (which
> can be modified for our needs, but is a very useful generic solution).
> Individual pages simply call one authentication method, and it currently
> either redirects the user to a login page/another page, or allows
> access. So the 'framework' is already laid out, and page writing could
> be divided up amongst a few people and rolled out independently.
>
> I've used this in both my day job and my freelance work with great
> success. All of the code is written in Python, and is well encapsulated,
> so admins can worry about authentication, and web page designers only
> have to worry about page design, someone else could handle the database
> interface, if so desired.
>
> My thoughts back then were, Zope/Plone is intimidating, difficult to
> deal with at times, and may narrow down the help we can enlist. But if
> we give people the opportunity to learn Python, Database interface
> tools, CSS, etc., it would increase this possibility.
>
> Please let me know your thoughts. "What? Are you crazy? " is a common
> response I get to proposing such drastic changes. But a few months
> later, everyone is always happy with the results. Now that I have the
> time, I can commit to regular support and online classes/sessions.
>
> We can start with a code review. if you give me until Friday, I can
> clean up a copy of my framework and put it together for you. I also have
> a CherryPy slide show I have done, outlining the framework.
>
> Thanks for your time,
> Gloria
>
>
>
> > I'm emailing this because Jen-Mei Wu asked about it on volunteers.
> >
> > Essentially there hasn't been any progress for six months or so. This is
> > partly my fault and partly a group failing I think. My fault for not
> > following up as quickly as I usually promised, and not keeping on
> > holding people to their commitments, both myself and others. In terms of
> > a group problem, there was definitely a slow drop in responses to my
> > prodding and questions I mailed here and to Dancer (I never did get to
> > access the Plone instance, for example, because the suggested solution
> > of putting test.linuxchix.org in /etc/hosts did not work when there was
> > a proxy server between me and the linuxchix.org server. I did ask for
> > alternative access several times.)
> >
> > The Australian meeting, due to a couple of miscommunications and also
> > due to an accident of timing, mostly ended up being about the Australian
> > chapter website rather than the international website, so there is no
> > significant progress to report from that.
> >
> > One person has tentatively volunteered to take over the process, at
> > least to the stage of getting a smaller new website ready. This has only
> > happened in the last week, and hopefully I can soon (as in, within the
> > week) hand this particular project over. It will likely have a smaller
> > initial charter (as in, not a complete port of all existing content), as
> > the larger charter failed.
> >
> > -Mary
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Actionchix at linuxchix.org
> > http://linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/actionchix
> >
> >
>
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