You’ve probably been wondering what on earth this project is and why is it taking so long? It’s a large project and the largest I’ve ever undertaken myself. It involves a lot of knowledge I previously didn’t have much of so on that note it’s a great project to get me to learn new things. So, as of this writing I’m learning WordPress plugin development in order to be able to work on part of the project. In this post I’ll go over what the project is so you have a pretty good idea on what exactly it is.
Also, I’m doing something different this time. Since previous projects of mine, such as Maelstrom and Simplicity, made use of Visual Basic 6 (VB6) which is over 20 years old at this point and obsolete, this time around I chose a new language to focus on: Java. Part of the reason for this was cross-compatibility with Windows, Linux and Mac, something that I had not focused on in my other projects. Another thing is that it’s modern, so no need to download special runtime libraries just to be able to use it. All you need is Java! With that said, I’d like to describe what this project is exactly.
What is the Code Speak Distribution System?
This project aims to provide a centralized means of access for programs that I make available to download. While projects like Simplicity and Maelstrom are accessible via my GitHub repository, I wanted a way where programs could be accessed in a single place. The way things work right now just aren’t centralized and so a system like this would introduce more flexibility for me. Also, something that I’ve been wanting to do is statistics tracking. It would be nice to track usage data for programs to get an idea of exactly how many people are using such programs. Not completely sure how I want to do that but that is something that’s been on my mind.
There are two main parts to this project intended for you to use: the client and the web frontend. The client is the program that you download. The way it works is similar to the Blizzard Launcher or even elements of the Steam client . It will keep track of which programs you download and automatically (or manually, depending on a setting) update any program that requires an update. You can also launch programs from the client. The web frontend will allow you to have access to these programs from this website. If you’re unable to download the client or for whatever reason don’t wish to download it you can still access programs this way.
Conclusion
This is by far not a simple project. A lot of work has gone into the planning of it and there is still a lot more to do to figure out exactly how this project is going to go. It serves specific needs I have that make the whole process of managing project releases so much easier. And it will also hopefully make things easier for you too.