Development
SyncLinux Development
Welcome to the SyncLinux Development Page. Here you can find out more about where the project is and in what direction it's heading. There is currently no public beta available. We do however need developers. You don't have to have uber mad skill but if you're fairly knowledgable with Linux and wish to help, please let us know.
Seeing as everyone's time is extremely limited with offline life priorities, the more people we have contributing their talent and scraps of spare time, the faster things will get accomplished.
SyncLinux Developers
| Handle / Alias | Real Name | Contributions / Skills | Website |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time Warrior | Dave Kelso | Project Head, R&D, Design & Concept | |
| Runemaster | Robert Corture | SSJS, Bash, Baja & Interface | |
| Merlin | Nate Welch | ISO Development / R&D | |
| Beta | Jason Stahls | PHP, MySQL, Bash, Baja, SSJS & Interface | |
| NiteDreamer | Bill Bonsoski | ISO Development / R&D | |
| Dodongo | Chuck Smith | FOSS / Python | |
| Josh | FreeDNS Integration | ||
| Nick Andre | D'Bridge Integration |
The BBS Crawler Exchange is a BBS Scene Information Syndication Service geared towards providing quality content rather than useless annoying crap. This service is supported both on the SyncLinux Website as well as within the Syncweb Intrerface itself. We think that the sharing of knowledge is very important and that benneficial information should be made available in a very discreet and polite way.
For more info, also see the Special Services Page.
Special Services
Special Services are the list of SyncLinux Services and features of this website that don't quite fit into any one specific category. Sticking them ON THE SPECIAL SERVICES PAGE allows us to keep our site from becoming bloated and confusing.
WINE Development
If you've never heard of Cedega, it is a WINE Modification that allows most Windows Applications and Games to run flawlessly under Linux. The catch 22 is, that it's $$ pay $$ software because of the nature of how this is done. They have a paid staff who's sole mission is to optimize the configurations on an application-specific level.
To receive compatibility updates, you need to pay for a subscription. I'd like to compete with Cedega with a free and open source equivelent to this sort of development staff.
Of course the Wine HQ Website is a good first step. They have a vast list of applications along with instructions as to how to tweak WINE to get them to work perfectly (seeing as all Windows Applications have the POTENTIAL to work perfectly under WINE, it's just not that way by default because of the R&D required. It's not a plug and play sort of thing).
First and foremost, we're looking for people to take the instructions for all of the Applications listed on the Wine HQ Website and slap them into the default WINE Config for SyncLinux.
Second -- any Applications that are NOT listed but you have gotten to work properly of your own accord because they happen to be programs that you enjoy using, we'd appreciate it if you'd share that information with us.
Third - we'd like some help with taking the Cedega Supported Applications and making them work with SyncLinux. We're sure that many on the Cedega List might fall under the category of personal preference and you might have already messed with the configurations and gotten them to work of your own personal efforts. If you have not, we'd appreciate it if you'd make the attempt.
Your assistance does not have to be persistent. We wouldn't exactly complain if you actively helped with this development -- however -- even if you only submit a configuration to us once every month or so, we still appreciate your help. We're not going to be demanding on anyones personal time. This is purely a voulenteer "as you feel like it" sort of request.
If you are an Author / Developer for a Windows Application, it would help to expidite progress if you would provide us with the WINE Configuration information for your product -- be it a pay software or free / open source.
BBS Scene Development
For all Synchronet and BBS Scene Applications, we invite the asisstance of anyone who cares to provide it. BBS Software Authors, Third Party Utility Authors, SVGA Artists, ANSI and ASCII Artists, Web Interface Design and the list goes on endlessly.
We would appreciate the help of coders and modders and let us clarify -- you do NOT have to be a coder to be a modder. I (Time Warrior) have signifigent modding skills, but couldn't code my way out of a paper bag if my life depended on it.
To give you a better idea, below is a wishlist of things that we'd like some help with.
| Feature Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Baja / ANSI | Modded Baja Telnet Themes to replace the Synchronet Defaults |
| Desktop | Desktop GUI Hooks into various BBS Utilities & Synchronet Features |
| Interface | Web Interface Hooks into various BBS Utilities & Synchronet Features |
| Desktop | SyncLinux KDE, Gnome and XFCE Default Themes, Wallpapers, etc.. |
| ANSI / ASCII | Create (or acuire) Public Domain ANSI / ASCII Art that anyone can use, to eliminate Sysop excuses for not having modded their setups |
| Interface | The porting of templates from Free Public Domain Template Sites into Synchweb Themes |
| ... more to come! |
W3C Validation
It is important that our HTML for this website as well as the default web interfaces within SyncLinux remain W3C Compliant. Unfortunately however, even though the pages tend to work perfectly, often times they will still have the validators for HTML and CSS bitching up a storm.
We need people to go over the HTML stuff and make the nessesary corrections so that the validator applications can remain happy with our work.
Resources
Below is a list of Resources to Assist our Developers.
Even if you elect to not develop for SyncLinux, this list may still prove worthy of your time to skim through it.
| Wesbite | Description |
|---|---|
| Style Shout | Free HTML / CSS Templates (Public Domain) |
| Template Monster | Free HTML / CSS Templates (Public Domain) |
| fotolia.com | Free Public Domain Images |
| Open Web Design | Free HTML / CSS Templates (Public Domain) |
| OSWD.org | Open Source Web Design |
| ZeroWeb | Free HTML / CSS Templates (Public Domain) |
| CSS Remix | Free HTML / CSS Templates (Public Domain) |
| 4templates.com | Free HTML / CSS Templates (Public Domain) |
| alistapart.com | Third Party HTML / CSS Standards Project |
| Librarian Chick | FOSSwiki for Educational Information on All Topics |
| w3schools.com | Easy to comprehend site for learning web design |
| JSOBJS | Synchronet JavaScript Object Model |
| SixteenColors | ANSi / ASCII Art Database Search |
| Facebook API | For Developing Facebook Applications |
| Google API | For Developing Google Tools & Widgets |
| Paypal API | Paypal Sandbox for Developing Paypal Tools |
| Pidgin API | For Developing Plugins for Pidgin Instant Messenger |
| GIMP API | For creating GIMP Plugins |
| Firefox API | Google Search Results for "create firefox plugins" |
| ... more to come! |
CVS & APT Repositories
We will inevitably have our own repositories. However, Rome was not built in a day. Until we get into some really hard core deviations, we'll be doing direct pulls from Ubuntu's APT Repository for the Core OS Defaults and Updates. We'll be pulling straight from cvs.synchro.net for the Synchronet Services. Our own services will be added in directly from the Live Install Disc itself.
Once we get to the point of having our own Repositories, then we will be manually keeping up with and adapting to changes and improvements from ubuntu.com and cvs.synchro.net.
Audio & Music
We've got a good idea for the default music and sound themes, and we need your assistance.
We need Musicians as well as people good with wave form editing. Any musical annotation within sound themes must be of your own creation. Feel free to get humerous if humor is the primary concept of your sound theme.
As for the Music -- we're going to require that the Music be in Demoscene Formats (ie: MOD, XM, IT, S3M). The reason being that Modules are capable of producing music of excellent sound quality but without the file size overhead that MP3s have.
In the past, space conservation was done using *.MID Music Files. Module Music can produce far superior sound quality and they do not depend on your Sound Card's on board Wave Table.
On average, a 150K-500K Music Module can have the same sound quality as, and have playback times that meet and exceed, an MP3 encoded at 256kbps -- which tend to average around 6MB-8MB in size.
This way we can provide far more "Default Music" onboard the Live Install Disc without it taking up a really stupid amount of space.
Most Mainstream Multimedia Players, including but not limited to Nullsoft Winamp are capable of playing these formats. So you can still share this music with all your pals that are still stuck on Microsoft Windows.
If you're a Musician but are unfamilar with Music Modules, then we'd suggest you check out Modplug Tracker (runs on Windows as well as Linux using WINE) and SkaleTracker (simultaneously Windows and Linux Native, WINE not required).
Synchronet Matchmaker
This section makes the assumption that you already know what the Synchronet Matchmaker is. So if you're not familar with it, then read this first.
As cool as this thing is, it is only available by way of Telnet / SSH which limits its potential. We need some coding talent to help us make an SSJS Synchweb Interface for the Matchmaker.
Dating sites are incredibly popular, but they also charge too much money -- as well as lots of other things that suck royal about them. Would be nice if the BBS Scene could get competitive in this area, seeing as $0 is a price tag thats impossible to beat.