Welcome!

[ritchiew]

Welcome, and glad you've made it this far.

If you don't know, Rawscripts is browser based screenwriting software,
now open sourced, and this is a space to work on it and discuss
things. There's plenty of info on this project at www.rawscripts.org,
or you can try it out at www.rawscripts.com, so check that out.

Here, I'm just going to dump a list of what I'm thinking and working
on, problems and triumphs.

***EASY TASKS***
There's a bunch of easy tasks for getting started with the code.

1) We want Windows users! There are some libraries to get, some
startup scripts, and the AppEngine dev_server, which should all work
on Windows. But I only run Linux and Mac, and don't know what's. Let
me know if you have questions or issues. Let me know what you figure
out, and add your knowledge to the docs to help others

2) Adding "Download Source" links to pages. Just a simple link on
every page that leads to Rawscripts.org.

3) The config.py file is a goofy mess. Almost everything should be
taken out and put in the templates instead.

4) Image for logo or something? The logo is just rendered text, and
looks crummy and different in each browser. Also, it should now be
changed from Rawscripts.com to just Rawscripts.

5) On the Scriptlist page, some element is too big, and forces an
extra scroll bar on small screens like netbooks. Find it, and fix it.

6) The scroll bar in the screenplay editor is rendered in the
<canvas>. There is something missing to make it look the same in all
browsers. I think it ought to be replaced by a simple rectangle that
changes color on hover.

******Larger things to Think About *************

1) Rawscripts runs on Google AppEngine which just sticks in my craw. A
large task of top priority is to get it off AppEngine (and their APIs)
and get it working on any LAMP-ish kinda stack. This means a almost
complete rewrite of the backend, starting, I think, with choosing a
new framework. This is a little starting from scratch and any input is
welcomed. This is huge, and will hold up other things in the mean
time.

2) There are some font issues. Courier is the standard, but the
licencing sucks. It would be good to find a comparable font, with a
copyleft licence. That also means looking at the font's prevalence on
home computers, things like @font-face support, and how that interacts
with canvas.

3) There is spell check support, but it is poor. There need to be
improvements in the in-the-browser-GUI with things like red squiggles.
There need be better functioning. It flags correct words, punctuation
can trip it up, so can differant text encoding. The spell checker is a
Google API, but it would be best to get it to run hunspell on the
server. That requires getting off AppEngine.

4) Rawscripts lets users share scripts and write notes on others work.
This currently only works on the main site. If people are setting up
their own servers, this needs to federate somehow. Again, probably
can't work on this until we're off of AppEngine.

5) Scripts are kept private, and you must explicitly share with people
for them to have access. But some way to publish scripts for anyone to
comment on would be cool. I'm sure people would like that.


Anyways, that's what I'm thinking. But the beauty of this is that
barely matters. What do you think? Go forth! Do stuff! Do Awesome
Stuff!

[Bill Sweeney]

Hey Ritchie,
Remember me?
I'd be glad to give back to this thing of yours any way I can, but I'm
not a coder. I do some graphic design work though, logos specifically.
Not full time, mind you, but when I can. Here's a few samples:

Baglesmith in brooklyn,ny (the pic was taken inside so it's reversed):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chieee/415835750/

A friend's blog:
http://professorpoliticorants.blogspot.com/

My own, for this page i have on facebook:
Facebook.com/wickedtheory

I actually like the simplicity of what you're using now, but I'd love
to help you with any changes you want to make. I'm also open to
helping if I can as far as writing goes.

[Ritchie Wilson]

Sure I remember you. That's some slick work you've got, and that's awesome you want to help!

There's tons of graphic design work to be done -- icons, and logo's of various sizes, and generally sprucing up the place. So if logo is what interests you, I say go for it. I too like the simplicity of what's there, but my nice feelings don't go too much further than that. I'd love to hear what tweaks you wanted to make, or what you'd do with free reign.

Also, I know that bagel store! I lived for a while in Bushwick and loving hanging out around there. Or sometimes MTA would just tell us all to get off at Bedford for no obvious reason. Good times....

Cheers

Ritchie

[Bill Sweeney]

Ritchie,
Sorry bud, this email got a little lost in the shuffle.
I think the font should stay COURIER but we can play with things like: letter sizes, distressing, focus on "raw"? Do you have any visual images that you want to include? (For example, stacks of paper or a typewriter.)
What colors should I be playing with? Just Blues and Greys?
Ultimately I'd give you some different Ideas concepts and we could hone in on what you like, and what works, from there. But the more info/ideas/thoughts I can get from you the quicker this can go.


Bill

[Osagie Agbon]

Hey Ritchie, 

Through some extensive googling, this is as close as i could figure to reaching you. Is rawscripts shuttered? And if so, is there a way for us to get our scripts and work off of the site?

Thanks,

Jay