Small bildr update

Ive been working a bit on bildr lately, but most of the work has been actually inputing data, and small changes, so nothing to really show.

Nathan over at SparkFun was awesome enough to allow bildr to use their content. So Im actually using it as bootstrap content (something to build off of). The really cool thing about it is that I have input about 200 components. After adding them I tagged all of them to build up the tag system, and then went through them and found words in the descriptions that users may want to read more about, and set them as links.

Because they the page they link to does not yet exist, they are added as wanted articles. So the best part is that usually users have no clue what they should write about, but now there is this list they can look through and easily find something they know about.

Wow… what?!? bildr Code is in alpha?

Ok. So after

• 7 months
• One complete redo
• 2802 lines of PHP
• 1370 lines of CSS
• 1726 lines of JavaScript

bildrCode is in alpha. I know, I know. It’s probably a lot to think about. You have been reading about this for such a long time, and it felt like it would never happen, but it’s true.

So… Without further ado, Lets see a video!

addition without modification

As always, I have working on bildr  a lot. But much of what I want to do is not possible with the applications I installed as the base (wiki forum and blog software). With RISDpedia, I modified the wiki software to make it to what I wanted, but it basically made it so I could never update, because it would undo everything I had done. With bildr, I am taking a new and different approach that has some really nice benefits, and one major problem.

With bildr, all modifications at this point are completely separate mini applications that are injected into the page. For instance the portal for bildr code is placed in the wiki with a single line.

<code project=”nameHere” />

This actually gets rendered into the page as

<script src=”http://code.bildr.org/nameHere.js” type=”text/javascript”></script>

What’s new?

What’s been going on in the world of Adam as of late?

Well you saw a few days ago that I posted an early stage of the bildrCode front end, but I didnt really give you much info on that. I have actually made a good deal of enhancements on this since just a few days ago.

This front end is the part most users will actually use and see when they encounter bildrCode. This is the client end, the part that makes the code so available, and easy to find. This front end is a portal to the real bildrCode that can be embedded anywhere. This portal as seen in my last post was inserted with just a single line. That single line automatically builds this into the site where users can see and copy the code from a project. (as well as download the project if the user was logged in) – These will be placed in the wiki to correspond with the sensor (or other electronic part).

This portal was actually ended up being dumber than I ever thought it would be. As in… when I tried to make this before, it ended badly because I was trying to make it too complex. I wanted the system to only grab what the user needed at that time. But for many reasons, it wasn’t going to work as I would like. So this now actually takes all the code from all the modules in a project and places them together on a list. So if you select a file, it just scrolls to that file.

The addition of code highlighting (changing the color of the code text to match its function) actually takes a long time to render, and some of the portals where taking upwards of 10sec to render every time the page was loaded. This was obviously not ok, so the system actually creates a cache file the first time it is rendered, and is now under a third of a second to render the same thing.

But this gets bilder one step closer to being able to launch later this month (cross my fingers)

A part of bildrCode has been opened up and made available as open source. The code I wrote to allow of tab indents can now be found/ downloaded in the mootools forge. My mooTools class called mooIndent will hopfully come in handy for anyone needing this kind of functionality in your site.

Putting this up on github (required to use the mootools forge) was sadly hard. There is just too much special knowledge needed to make it work correctly. But after 2 weeks (just poking at it here and there) it’s there and ready for you to use. (i know, i know… it kinda specialized)

getting close

I can feel things getting close to a beta opening. bildr’s web theme is pretty much finished for now. Consisting of a blog wiki and forum all looking pretty close to each other.

The use of existing software to start this project I believe will allow us to build the system as best fits us without waiting for a custom software to be designed/made. This will kickstart the system, as well as give us access to millions of developers already using this system.

The idea behind this simple theme is 2 things. One, I wanted something nice and simple that wouldn’t take away from the content. But most of all, this theme is actually just a place holder – A theme simple enough people wouldnt feel attached to it. Something people would want to expand on or change completely, but wouldn’t bother people while we figure out what to replace it with.

bildr will hopefully open later this month and as invite only, and open to everyone later this year.

The reasoning for the invite only opening is this: bildr needs to be built up in content and system before it is opened to everyone, so dealing with a ton of people while we do this will only make things move slower.

So if you are interested in helping make bildr the best it can be, sign up for an invite code when it opens, or send me an email before hand letting me know you want to help.

Major Limitations of the browser

Im currently building a web application that works more like an application on your computer than it does one on the web.

We all know that everything is going there, but there are currently a lot of major limitations in the browser that are holding it back from coming quicker than it could.

First: I know a lot of this poses security problems, but ignore that for a second.

Id like to be able to:

1. • Ask the user if they would like to save before closing the window (and even allow them to cancel)
2. • Add menu items, or control the file menu.
3. • Customize the contextual menu system
4. • remove the address (and others) bar to control the look of the entire page.

But maybe, just maybe, I need to stop making an application on the web, and go back to making a web application.

Sometimes I question, but alway reassured

error: failed to push some refs to 'git@github.com:ameyer/MooIndent.git'
To prevent you from losing history, non-fast-forward updates were rejected
Merge the remote changes before pushing again.  See the 'non-fast forward'
section of 'git push --help' for details.

Wordprocessing on the web

I realized it had been awhile since I updated. I think most of my posts are starting this way it seems. But i have been working hard on a few things, one of which is all about wordprocessing on the web.

I have been working on bildr code a whole lot more than I care to say. I actually found a HUGE fundamental flaw in how the versions are created. Essentially I thought it was working because I wasn’t properly testing it. Every edit was being tracked, then one time I did a new edit and all my files disappeared. Long story short, the fact that it worked before was dumb luck. But all is fixed.

But on the productive side, I have been enabling bildrCode to allow users to evoke typical commands used by coders. One of them enabling tabs. Tabs are HUGE in code. You tab to indent your code for better communication, but some languages actually require this. So tabs, being so important, I worked long and hard to make them work.

Hitting the Tab will make a tab as it should.

I know that tabs are used to cycle through fields on a website. BUT you need to stop thinking of this as a website and start seeing that they are just applications that live on the web.

So tabs… Well you can now select a bunch of text, and hit tab, and all of the lines will shift over. Or you can hit shift-tab and they will shift back. The whole process is way complicated to get it working correctly, but to the user, it just works.

——————————————RANT——————————————

I have to make a plug here for webkit, specifically safari. I develop in safari. It’s fast. Maybe too fast. I move over to firefox and im annoyed with how slow its javascript performance is. Also you can see some fundamental flaws in the way the developers felt it should work.

Holding a button down only fires one event, but the computer knows to enter that key over and over until they let go. WHAT???? Like this aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa <– I just held down the a key down. Well safari knows that there are like 20 As there, so it fires a new event for each. But firefox feels this should just be the one, so the first a sends an event, but then the rest get no love.

Small update

Hadn’t posted in awhile so I figured Id do a short one.

Things at work have been really busy. We finished our beta product, and sent it off to our first customers. You never remember all the things that need to be done to make this happen. Everything from shipping and boxes to serial numbers and systems in place to make that happen.

The software that I head up  is really shaping up. There are so many little things that need to come together to make this happen well, and you get so jaded when you start on it because you can plow through so much so quickly. But soon it comes down to the nitty gritty and things move at the same pace, but look much slower. But as my good friend Zack Kamen said “Applying the varnish can be 90% of the work” – And from what I have experienced, the varnish is what changes “so-so” software into great software.

I started looking at my bildr code database, and started seeing redundant information due to adding things on to it. But I didnt know how much until I took it into a visual editor and was able to see all the tables and all the fields at once. The schema helped me completely redo it into something that I hope will work much better.

Spreading the word

I started contacting people about bildr yesterday, and it looks like it is working.

I contacted only about 30 people, and 70 have watched it. Not to bad. But I know it is going to start tanking soon. I need to find a way to keep this going. But it’s going to be hard. Though, I have been contacted by a few people about it, looking at how they can help out. So it is getting exciting either way.

I will be setting up a forum soon so that we can start figuring out what needs to be done and how we should approach this. But as I remember from starting theGiant, it’s hard to get anyone to talk without a critical mass.

Anyways, other than starting the crusade, there really isn’t too much to talk about. Some cool stuff is coming up at work, but we will see what I am actually allowed to talk about.