Interview :: Charles Capps - Part DeuxBy: Allen Ayres
UBBDev - There are several significant changes to the 6.1.0 code and feature list, can you give us a little insight into the changes and what they're useful for?
Charles Capps - 6.1.0 originally had two goals - finish up what Ted couldn't squeeze into 6.0, and polish the control panel. We got both of those done ahead of our schedule, by about a week. We decided to spend the remaining time retrofitting the way UBB regenerates the .threads file, which was the most I/O intense operation in the entire script and is the major cause of load from 6.05 (NOT the cache building!)
So, I did that. That's when problems started cropping up. I added more and more troubleshooting code, trying to figure out why the files were corrupting and disappearing. Only after we'd put out Beta Release 1 did we find the core problem.
Our file locking was not doing things as it should. We spent about two weeks exploring the various options and finally settled on a single locking model. We spent another two weeks banging on the new locking and I/O and sending out new releases for our beta testers.
A week into testing, we discovered a
hack by Philipp Esselbach . It was a very simple, straightforward PHP script that could talk to the UBB cache. With zlib compression enabled, the thing could whip out UBB pages many times faster than the UBB could.
We received permission from Philipp to distribute the UBB Accelerator with the UBB itself.
After another week of beta testing and over 12 internal betas, Beta Release 2.0 was made public.
2.0 brings a major change to the way UBB performs file locking and I/O.
Please see my thread in the forums for more info .
We are currently putting the finishing touches on Release 2.1, which we hope to be one of the final beta releases. If all goes well, 2.2 may be the final beta release. If not, then there will be a few more.
UBBDev - How is this of benefit to the developers, webmasters, and general users?
CC - Webmasters & users: Speed speed speed! With the Accelerator enabled, your UBB will perform faster than ever before. And if you use the handy dandy
cgi_buffer module , the core UBB scripts can also use zlib compression.
Developers: The new object oriented file handling and locking system is much more flexible than the old system, and is still easier to use.
Check out ubb_lib_filehandle for all sorts of goodies. We're now also shipping our own Data::Dumper (see: ubb_lib_dumper), making the WriteHashToFile / WriteHashesToFile routines much more robust. Unfortunately, I haven't totally converted everything to use these new routines for 6.1.0 (see: ubb_pm.cgi)
A warning to developers: I will be lurking in the Beta Mods forum, and will rip apart any hack you make that does NOT comply with the
guidelines set in the thread .
UBBDev - Any foreseeable changes before we get to the final released version?
CC - There are going to be a number of significant (some would say shocking) changes coming up for Infopop around the time of the projected 6.1 release date. I'm sorry, but I can't say anything more about them right now. You'll see.
As for the feature set and coding of 6.1.0, no, there are no planned changes. We're quite eager to get it out the door and into the hands of the public. We can't start on the 6.2 betas until 6.1.0 is out.
UBBDev - Are there features and changes on the horizon you'd like to share?
CC - Everyone knows we're doing a Who's Online for 6.2.0. Our Who's Online will be completely unlike anything you have ever seen. It's so different that we're not even CALLING it Who's Online! Prepare to have your socks knocked off.
UBBDev - I have a few questions from some interested UBB owners I'd like to ask for
them:
Concerned UBB™ Owner - I'm still using v5.47, with a fair number of hacks and many layout changes. What would be the benefit of upgrading my board to 6.1, since it's functioning like I want it to right now?
CC - This is a really tough call. If you're not an active hacker (meaning you aren't doing much to the board now), and are content with the 5.47 version, I see no reason that you need to switch.
However, if you want to get back into the hacking scene, you should upgrade. 5 series hacks are very rare nowadays, and only a handful of people are still producing them. You can do far more with 6.1.0 than you could with the 5 series.
CUO - With the recent addition of soap / xml-rpc in apple's latest OS, do you plan on supporting those upcoming protocols, used heavily in Microsoft's .NET operating system as well?"
CC - We can never do SOAP and other network tricks in UBB natively. We require only Perl 5.004, and the required modules would need to be compiled on the server.
SOAP and the like are more the realm of OpenTopic, as they can get away with it.
CUO - If not, or in addition too, will you provide a public documentation on how to hook other applications into UBB? will we be able to one day click a magic button in our email program and have it automagically posted to our favorite UBB board?"
CC - We don't have the time or resources to provide full documentation, but I will be providing tutorials on how to hook the UBB member database into RDBMSes.
That dream is a bit off - there are all sorts of issues that are present with the whole email-to-post thing... I won't go there.
CUO - How many hours, away from work, do you think about code?
CC - A more appropriate question would be "when do you NOT think about code?"
Decline to answer. Let's just say that I'm a programmer.
CUO - Are there any convertors in the works to move my forum to UBB? I like what you are doing, but don't want to lose all the threads and members I have worked hard to build.
CC - We are working on a handful of conversion apps, but these are mostly tentatively for internal use only. Stay tuned.
CUO - Are there any plans to include searching for posts by public names?
CC - Personally, I'd love to do this. Unfortunately, we've decided to put this off due to the potential complexities of keeping a comprehensive, complete number -> pubname database up to date (or so says Ted :)). It isn't on our current todo list.
UBBDev - Whew! That should be enough
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
CC - October is going to be a very exciting month for Infopop. See question 3 for more specific generalities.
