i've spent most of december, 2000 tightening-up core code, documenting and building this website.

now there's a place to discuss what is surely burning inside each and every one of you, so have at it.

all builtin-in scripting functions are now documented (and self-documenting) with realtime examples.

i'm playing around with the site structure and just added a rough programming doc framework. this will shortly be filled-in with full API disclosure, example programs, etc.

as i'm doing all this, i'm seeing where others might have difficulty, or something could be clearer and i continue to tighten stuff up. so the longer you have to wait, the less you'll be disappointed! (yeah, i know - some of you have been waiting literally *years* to play with this stuff - hang in there)

all-in-all, this has been a very good month of tying up ends.

a longtime goal was realized today with the implementation of true scripted function support.

what this means is that script-writers can now roll their own interpreted functions. deep milestone, this.

as a proof of concept, i promptly converted the documentation section of htdb.org to use scripted functions to handle the usage and examples for function calls.

sophisticated functions may now be scripted - SQL calls, conditionals, etc. may be used.

it turns out that script functions are immune to the "execute at readtime" bug after all.

2.5 tier (since it *could* be made multi-tier, is the thinking) in a nutshell.

i've introduced the ${itor()} and ${rtoi()} functions which, very importantly, convert to and from roman numerals. you might notice their usage in the comment area.

recently, there's been an effort to stem memory leaks and to document, document, document.

i must say, script functions are pretty nifty - most of the docs section uses them to self-document and it is a bit of a mind-bender to use a function to document itself, but HEY! it works.

i've been thinking a bit about the "right" CVS layout for a release. does "htdb" really belong as a child of htdocs - or should it be a peer - or should it reside in /etc - BIG questions... input appreciated..

and out

this is a lot of work!

at any rate:
The Programming Functions Section now has something usable to look at. it's going to take
awhile to plow through all the sections that need
to be documented. the hope is that this will
eventually become database-driven - but for now
i'm still playing with the layout.

feedback appreciated.

but here's some news of recent developments:

1- in a fastCGI environment, script functions are now cached. this is important as it offloads evaluations until runtime, which is a boon for performance all around


2- all server-known environment variables are now available, not just a subset as previously.


3- in a fastCGI environment, applications will now self-reload upon a change to the modification time of the binary. this is cool because it allows for realtime code updates without need for server hupping.

so that's it for now..

2001 brought many new DSO extensions, several bugfixes, some internals optimization - the usual stuff.

Currently, I'm adding a simple image upload-to-database API, with auto scaling and all the whistles. This will make for easy templatized photo gallery type websites to get up and running.

I'm getting more and more requests for HTDB distributions - and it still isn't going to happen until I'm happy with the distribution method.

Accordingly, I've added a new section asking for assistance with such matters. Any automake gurus reading this? I need your help...