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

As some of you know we're currently working on resurrecting Barlesque. This us actually going reasonably well.

But here's the thing about it; the BBC took the Zend Framework, and removed from it a lot of stuff they didn't need. This meant it ran faster. They then altered a lot more of it to easily allow multiple stand alone sites to run from the same base framework. They then tweaked other areas to improve things as they wanted them for all these sites. They then added to this a lot more generic code that could be used by any of the sites. This they called Forge. Although sometimes I think its should have been called Frankenstein's Lab.

Now, when the Barlesque version of h2g2 was built, it had to be built to work on Forge. Bits and pieces of code had to be written in weird ways to get it to fit. I can almost guarantee it wasn't easy. Thing is, in resurrecting this skin, we have to take it out of the BBC's proprietary Forge, and put it into Zend. Which is easier said than done.

To go back to the Frankenstein analogy, it's a bit like trying to take the brain back out of the monster, and refit it into the body it came from. And then finding that when you weren't looking someone had also swapped the legs, and the arms. And some other bits and pieces that you're not quite sure what they're supposed to do.

It's getting there, and I'm very grateful for the help we're getting. But you do wonder that perhaps in building the monster the beauty of the donors was overlooked.

Admittedly in the Frankenstein books the donors were dead, and the analogy kinda breaks down there.

But we're ripped the brain out and put it back in to the right body. We've reattached most of the limbs, and we're now hunting around for a few extremities while also wondering what this little wiggly bit does.

Thank you for that beautifully vivid description.

I'm glad it's still an hour until suppertime, though...

(Best of luck, amazing undertaking.)

I think I know exactly what that wiggly bit does... It s things, doesn't it?

You do have a special way of writing, Pastey.

TRiG.

You should always have one or two screws (or appendages) left over that don't seem to fit anywhere...

Just don't give it a second head and a third arm, or people will accuse us of being a cliquey fan site again

There'll be a few screws left over to start with. I've removed the broken wysiwyg editor, I've another one lined up that I'll put in as soon as I can. In fact, there's a couple of things that didn't really work that are going, and a couple of things that were missing that are coming back.

Good luck!

Quite possibly my favourite analogy i have ever been told

Just what part of 'rip and replace' don't you understand, Pastey?

He could also forget the rip part - then we'd see what happens when Barlesque "turns" into a hootoo eating monster

I think I've found a kidney.... any idea where it goes?

I thought that was an appendix, so i chucked it

That kidney goes in my frying pan

Bleuch, i loathe kidney, thankfully it isn't contaigious like some foods i dislike (note beetroot is the ebola equivalent), so as long as i notice it, it can be picked out from pies and such.

Good thing I'm eating that one, I guess. Saved you from an unpleasant experience. You're welcome

I'm awed by your self-sacrifice :D