Request for update on Slashcode

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Applesmasher: Anyone who is currently working on getting slashcode running - can you let us know what you have discovered in terms of tricks, gotchas and prerequisites?

This information will help the systems side get the server ready to roll by Monday.

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mbadolato: I got Slashcode up and running 2 years ago. I do still have the VM I used (on VMWare Fusion) and I ran it last night. The site loads but it is very problematic. Links simply don't work (404s), some pages don't render correctly (Apache error directives when loading assets), etc. I didn't do much with it when I got it set up, other than look around a bit at the parts that would work. There was a lot of borkage.

From an email I sent to John yesterday:

1) It needs mod_perl 1.x and apache 1.x. I think I just grabbed a copy of Debian 6 as those older packages were still easily supported there. They may be installable on more modern versions but I'm not as familiar with Linux distros (I use FreeBSD, and there were a ton of issues getting them running on a modern FreeBSD distro).

2) The slashcode distribution had issues. Like you said, it hasn't been updated since 2009. And even at that, I'm not entirely sure what state it's in. I got the default site up and displaying, but some links, pages, functions etc, simply did not work (i.e., click a button to do something and nothing happens (no page reload, no new page, no form, etc). Could be javascript issues, I didn't research). There were also problems with the SQL file, as it was written for older versions of MySQL. I did manage to update it for MySQL 5.5 and got the data loaded.

I just uploaded the distribution with my changes to github. Again, I didn't do much, just some basics to get slashcode installed and running. I don't recall details about the install other than going through their readme etc. I do recall asking CmdrTaco a question about the admin backend, but he wasn't really able to help.

The distribution is at https://github.com/Cybernox/slashcode and the development branch is where my few minor changes are. Feel free to grab it to have a starting point for the MySQL stuff at least.

<img src="http://i59.tinypic.com/sdmfm0.png" />
Running code on my vm, taken last night

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applesmasher: That's better than a kick in the teeth, anyway.

Could you identify any particular reason that those ancient versions of the environment code were required? Anything we could work around or fix?

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mbadolato: The code is built around mod_perl 1. It's been a while since I've done any dev in a mod_perl environment, but IIRC, the transition between v1 and v2 (and likewise the changes required for apache v1 vs v2) would require code changes. I could be mistaken, however. I have not looked at the code enough to know how simple or difficult it would be, nor do I have any recent work with mod_perl to remember what is entailed

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applesmasher: Maybe hitting the target of Monday will be acceptable on version 1, with a high severity bug for an upgrade.

Thoughts?

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Vanderhoth:

Thoughts?

AHHHH!!!!! **Throws laptop across the room**
Stupid Slashcode!!

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neaqix:

applesmasher wrote:

Maybe hitting the target of Monday will be acceptable on version 1, with a high severity bug for an upgrade.

Thoughts?

The problem is, the Monday release will be heavily visited and lots of people will make a first impression out of it.

Also news sites might make a small bubble out of it, with some sensationalistic headline of course.

Perhaps it should not run in Perl at all and we should pick some other software and adapt it? I am not thinking about anything that could fit right now...but I'd rather use a mockup built overnight than go with some tremendously broken software on Monday

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applesmasher: I think that people returning will be driven by the quality of the stories and editing.

As long as we do a good job on that, some code breakage will be forgiven.

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neaqix:

applesmasher wrote:

I think that people returning will be driven by the quality of the stories and editing.

As long as we do a good job on that, some code breakage will be forgiven

Yep. I checked the demo, looks promising

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lukeshep: Hi there, just shout if testers are needed, I'm sure there are a bunch of interested lurkers who know how to file a proper bug report. Harness us!

Good luck