Easier Template Tags: Status Update 12
Keith Bowes
report? I almost forgot completely and no one has yet, but I will
anyway. What's the worst that can result from it?
I didn't really get much done this week. It was just finishing up
what my mentor said I absolutely had to do (and what he said would be
nice while I was at it). I implemented the following tags: <
$CommentType$>, <$EntryCommentsNumber$>, <$WPEntriesNavigation$>, <
$WPIfCommentsOpen$>, <$WPIfPingsOpen$>, and <CommentsRSSLink> (the
mandatory remaining tags). I also implemented eztags_bind() to allow
plugin authors to create tags and bind their conversions to
functions. There's an example in the readme.txt file.
The big difficulty this week was finally doing the dreaded thing of
implementing tags with multiple parameters. This was difficult, as I
actually had to do reading and writing attributes, which wasn't
exactly the easiest and most straightforward thing to do. A lot of my
help came from reading through the WordPress code. That's especially
true of eztags_bind(); it was heavily inspired by add_filter(),
especially using associative arrays and using call_user_func_array().
Now, looking back on Summer of Code. Has it been an helpful
experience? Yes! Would I want to do it again? I'm insane for saying
this, but yes :)
I applied at WordPress for different reasons. One is that it's
written in PHP, so I thought it would be easier to work with than a C+
+ project (never mind that g++ is horribly slow). Next, I had
customized my WordPress theme and was familiar with the basics of
template tags and I thought that they would be easy to convert. Much
to my surprise, it was much harder and the tags are much more
elaborate than I thought.
I learned about myself too. In my hobbyist coding, I always worked
alone. I either did my own project or worked in my own little corner
of an existing project (a prime example being porting Lazarus to the
Windows API, in which all I had to do was work on the backend code by
myself and not worry about collaboration on the frontend). I've
learned that in the future, I need to work with others more. That's
really hard for me because I don't really know the line between it
being reasonable to ask for help and being too lazy to figure it out
myself. I lean toward the latter, and that nearly cost me a decent
midterm evaluation (thankfully, the second half of the program has
been much more fruitful than the first).
I also learned that I'm not really good at thinking of solutions to
problems. It's sad but true. My initial attempt was unworkable and I
had to rely on the suggestions of the mentors to have something
workable. Maybe I'll get better the more I work.
I also credit the program for allowing me to make a plugin of this
magnitude. I face the fact that I would have never been able to do it
without this program. If I started it (which I doubt I would have
without the professional gain that it promised), I'd still be
floundering on my original flawed idea (if I hadn't already given up).
I'll probably apply again next year, but I can't really say if I'll be
accepted. It might seem crazy. My original idea was unworkable and
that caused me to feel feelings of stupidity and not being worthy or
apt to continue working on it or in the field itself. It really
started from the beginning (as I'm sure my mentor can attest to my
inordinately low self-esteem during the first few weeks), and only got
worse around the midterm evaluation (as my family can attest by the
amount of time I spent either crying or lying around depressed). I
did work during that time, but not as much as I could or should have.
It was during the last couple of weeks that my code started to shape
up and it became apparent that I was creating something that might be
useful that these negative feelings disappeared. I'm a bit afraid
that I'm going to have a life of this: depressed that what I'm doing
sucks until it finally takes shape into something that doesn't totally
suck.
Oh well, we'll see if creating a project that does something that some
will likely find useful (I'm releasing it to the public regardless if
my final evaluation is positive or not) might springboard me into
thinking more about my abilities for next year. Maybe entertaining
the thought of ever programming for material gain again isn't so
crazy. Ah, it probably is.
[This rambling copied from http://zooplah.dyndns.org/soc/2007/08/18/easier-template-tags-status-update-12/]