Re: the state of things so far

>>>>> "PS" == Pete Sergeant <[email protected]> writes:

  >> * Is anyone else subscribed to this list? I only know
  >> about myself and Uri, so far. Heads up! :-)

there are only a few and i don't even have a list of them.

  >> * What is the status WRT books.perl.org? Would perl.org
  >> host it? Who should be contacted about this? Who should
  >> do the contacting? :-)

  PS> Domain name is easy to get. I have my doubts on if it would be
  PS> hosted, and if it can't be, I can host it... Providing there's no
  PS> extreme traffic.

we have the domain already and ask bjorn hansen will host us with most
of the rest of perl.org so that is covered. we have access to mod_perl,
a DBI database, etc. no issues with power.

  >> * Does anyone have any particular opinions about >> exactly how
this should turn out, and how it >> should progress?

  >> Hope this is not too demanding, I am hoping to hit the ground
  >> running, etc. I'd like to see something up fairly quickly...

good, then first off let's list what info we want for each book. take a
look at my old perl books site (linked from sysarch.com) and improve
upon that. i have most of the facts of each book, links to related
pages, and links to reviews. my DB is just a list of hashes.

it also has a (broken) price comparison section. do we want to keep
that? do we want to link to sellers at all? are we allowed to link to
them given that this will be a perl.org site?

then we need to work on how it will look. with 200+ books, my design
(which is a refection of my lowly design skill) would suck more than it
does now. i wrote that as much for the challenge as anything else. it
does some neat things (the expansion/compression of the book info) and
supports frame/no frame all in pure perl. no gawdawful javascript.

then we need to define how to classify books. that is VERY hard. what
caetgories do we use? how do we bin books?

getting more reviews is critical. as is getting free copies fro the
reviewrs. i have some connections to some publishers. i also have over
20 perl books now.

the DB design is also needed. how does someone search for a book? what
keys/params do they enter?

as you see, this is not trivial to do. so let me know your
thought. recruit others to join this list. 

uri

-- 
Uri Guttman  ---------  [email protected]  ----------  http://www.sysarch.com
SYStems ARCHitecture and Stem Development ------ http://www.stemsystems.com
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