h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oooh... server eruptions. You don't wanna be near one of those.

To be fair, Pliny may look like Barlesque, and does share a lot of code, but I can certainly vouch that at least three quarters of it isn't Barlesque.

Barlesque was built on the BBC's proprietary Forge framework, which is a customised version of the Zend Framework. Because part of the purchase of h2g2 did not include Forge, we've had to remove the entire framework that runs the BBC systems, and replace it with a vanilla installation of the Zend Framework, including writing new hooks and libraries to replace those that were either removed or not suitable. On top of that we've added some new features to bring it more up to date, including a wysiwyg editor and some social media hooks.

Not all the database APIs were suitable either, some we've managed to work with by putting some hefty coding hacks around them, others we've had to completely replace.

We've also had to write a new user login and authentication system to replace the BBC single sign on that we've ripped out. The one we're using for the older skins isn't suitable I'm afraid so this has had to be built from scratch, but we'll also be rolling that out to the older skins too.

We have also had the Artists go over it to help tweak its accessibility, something lacking in Barlesque, and to re-lay out several of the pages to make them more usable.

So, while Pliny may look like Barlesque at first glance, it's a not quite Barlesque with the bugs taken out.

Glad to hear it.

You explained how the other/older skins will co-exist with Pliny, but I haven't completely understood your explanation. Will any of the enhancements from Pliny also become available with the other skins at some point?

Soooo- was Barlesque kinda like Pliny the Younger or....Pliny the Elder?

One of the Plinys was sort of like an admiral. That fits in with the motif.

The newer features in Pliny won't be available in the older skins I'm afraid, but we are planning a full rebuild to bring all the skins onto the same framework, with the same functionality.

But that's a bit off yet I'm afraid

more readers, more fame

must get a shower(2 per yr, I ain't proud) and hair gelled ready

Y'know, every time we have announcements like this one, I am in wonder anew.
Expertise is one thing (we've all got a little of that stowed away somewhere)

But - the dedication - that's Something Else.

I raise my hat again, I salute you, I thank you.
All of you.



Rod

I'm sure that lots of people have worked on getting Pliny to our browsers, but there is one person who did most of the work, and that's Pastey.

Testing, testing....


Pastey threatened to close my account for tonight, he must have forgotten


Now, which buttons shall I press?



lil xx

Lil, I trust you to figure out which buttons to not press, and the sheer talent ro press them anyway.

I thang you, Paul


I think


*sits on her Matt to work out what has just been said*

Thanks for all your interest in Pliny and Eddie. And a big 'thank you' to Pastey who managed to answer questions during a brief break in coding.

This is in the que awaiting modderation

As Data (Star Trek) would say:- ah! pliny, an apron with a lisp

Do we now need to worry for lil's Matt? How long're you sitting on him?

Agree to what's said already - you coding guys are indeed our local

Shagbark, there shouldn't be any downtime when you all switch over to Pliny, as it's already up and running and we're busy testing it. This posting was written with Pliny, so you can see the dreaded ' bug, or whatever the code was, is gone. When the time comes for people to start using it, we can just tell you where it is.

Yeah, and please, don't go looking for it either...

Yes, we don't want people using Pliny until all the bugs are ironed out, as it would just spoil your enjoyment of it when it is ready.