Software

[Lufah]

Sorry trans. Just messing with ya. I know nothing about coding, but if you need some idiot to see if they can break it I'm you man.

Travis

[skipper]

I know nothing about coding, but if you need some idiot to see if they can break it I'm you man.
Travis

Never underestimate the importance of a well calibrated "idiot" in software testing. It is not possible to make software idiot proof as the perfect idiot does not exist, however there are some very close approximations which can be very useful.

[trans]

Sorry trans. Just messing with ya.

Yeah, I know. I didn't take it wrongly or anything. It's all cool.

Never underestimate the importance of a well calibrated "idiot" in software testing.

Yeah, I know. I think I spend more time making software "idiot proof" than I do writing the actual functionality. In the end it makes the product much better anyways, so it's all cool.

- joe

[bperetto]

That looks like a good feature list, Trans

To clarify on some of my intensions/features...

My DB was originally meant to share BeerXML files without the Admin having to do much of anything (ie, keep updating a list of recipes on a static html page). But it *seemed* easy enough to create a calculator from it since all the info was already in a database. Of course, that was easier said than done. BeerXML is in metric, so it does support US and Metric units.

This wasn't meant to replace stand-alone software, but it's meant to be robust enough for people who do things by hand or use spreadsheets for their recipe formulation. Brad at beersmith has given his blessing for my project, but I do want to alienate promash for not supporting the BeerXML standard. I think the homebrewing community would benefit from being able to trade recipes easily among different platforms/programs.

I've programmed little things here and there since I was 8, but I'm surely no code monkey nor do I wish to become one. Once I release my code, I'm hoping others will suggest improvements or even program some add-ins.

Right now, I just have to finish some of the writing-to-database routines and then pretty it up. I'd say 95% of it is done. Hopefully I'll finish it next week if work is lax.

[trans]

bperetto,

Thanks for clarifying things, although I gathered a lot from your website.

You have any idea when BeerXML 2.0 will be out? From reading the forum, it seems like a few people are talking about it. Maybe I'll have to join the discussion to see if some progress can be made there.

So, I read that what you wrote is open source. What kind of license exactly? Something like MIT? If I like what you wrote, I'd like to incorporate at least some of it (giving credit where due).

I'm not sure if I have the will and capability to do what I wrote in that text file, but it'd be nice if I could. I am also a hobbyist coder, so I'm not the best coder in the world. In fact, I wish I wasn't mostly a procedural programmer (supposedly object-oriented programming makes sense and all). Well, it's never too late to learn I suppose.

As for my progress so far, I have base functions for a lot of things...probably closely resembling the tools you wrote for your site.

I may hold back a bit though in order to try out your stuff. (Hmm, that sounded gay. Maybe nobody will notice.)

Anyways, I have to go outside to drunkenly weedwhack. Surely that will be fun.

- joe

[bperetto]

Crap. a version 2?

I guess I better join the discussion, too.

I'm not entirely familiar with all the licenses out there, but this one will be a "use it for free any way you want, but if you modify it (beyond cosmetic), send the changes back to us so others can benefit from it"


Edit: looking at beerxml v2, it looks like they're overcomplicating it so much that I won't support it. Screw them. To quote a homebrewing friend "it's just beer". I'm very passionate about beer, but it's still just a hobby. There's no need to turn something so great and joyful into so much work. I also love computers and technology, but those geeks are ruining a simple thing with unnecessary "standards" and "specifications".

[trans]

bperetto,

It might be a pain to support both versions of BeerXML. I'm not sure what I'd end up doing. Too bad they couldn't have just gotten it "right" the first time around.

Also, thanks for explaining the license to me. I understand it now, and it works for me.

- joe

[bperetto]

FYI everyone:

http://kotmf.com/recipes/

the recipe database and calculator are now open to the public as part of alpha testing.

please post any questions, errors, requests to our support forum. (the link is on the bottom of the DB pages)