If you read the "mod_rewrite question" thread, you'll understand that
Karl, even though experienced with .htaccess files and regular
expressions, ran into a situation where he needed some help to get
things to that "just right" place.

I've mentioned before that I actually avoid using many of the features
available through the .htaccess file's settings, because I consider
them too easy to screw up and too hard to test, a combination that I
find off-putting.

Granted I'm no expert at using things like mod_rewrite, but I think
there are a lot of other folks in the same boat I'm in, but who aren't
willing to jump into the necessary PHP (or whatever) code to
accomplish the same function for a number of reasons, performance
being one of them and probably near the top of the list.

Being a highly povertous and fairly inventive fellow, of course I've
had an idea. I'd like to ask opinions of this and see if you folks
think it's worth pursuing.

Suppose there was an interactive utility that would read the contents
of your .htaccess file and tell you in plain english what it was going
to do. Suppose also that you could enter url strings into it and it
would tell you what would happen in that specific case. Suppose
finally that it understood regular expressions and would provide some
help, diagnosis, or string-checking for them.

In theory, folks who get into a bind could fiddle with it a bit and
know that what they came up with would work. Folks like me who are
compulsive about being able to test things could use it to run their
tests. Of course it would need to be solid to build a basis of trust.

Do you think such a thing could be sold for a few bucks a copy? Would
it be more useful as a Windoze-based utility or an interactive web
utility? What about also doing the same thing for .config files?

--
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hug <contact_info@sig_line.clickit> wrote in
news:nued12p3dm6n1jag4vnts57tv9gjuv03qk@4ax.com:

Don't give me too much credit. I might have some intermediate-level
experience with .htaccess, but my regex knowledge is pathetic. I use them
so infrequently that when I write regular expressions, I have to get out
a book and re-learn what I'm after each time. I suppose I could practice,
but I have other things to worry about and regex ain't one of them.


<snip>
Yes. But:
I think the key would be to do it in a user-friendly manner. Keep in mind
that usability is: Ease of Use, Ease of Learning, and Ease of Recall.
Regular expressions are, by their very nature, NOT easy to use, learn, or
remember. An application like you're discussing would have to be an
easy-to-use method to fill that gap - almost a training aid, of sorts, to
help them see, understand, and remember WHY and HOW the regex does (or
does not) what they want.



--
Karl Groves
http://karlcore.com
http://chevelle.karlcore.com

Accessibility Discussion List: http://smallerurl.com/?id=6p764du

On Tue, 14 Mar 2006 06:08:40 -0700, hug
<contact_info@sig_line.clickit> scrawled:

No, but it might work as donation-ware

If it were interactive web, then you might be able to support it with
advertizing on the site.

--
MGW
Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even
when you take into account Hofstadter's Law. - Douglas Hofstadter

"hug" <contact_info@sig_line.clickit> wrote in message
news:nued12p3dm6n1jag4vnts57tv9gjuv03qk@4ax.com...

Apache sort of has that already.
If you put the .htaccess stuff in the conf file and test it you should get
some idea of whats wrong.
maybe thats not enough though.

My experience over many years dealing with web hosting customers is that
often the problems happen when something goes wrong with this its because
they don't have the fundamental knowledge necessary to use commands in
..htaccess.
No tool, no mater how clever, can impart that knowledege......
unfortunately..... yet......

Of course in my day we would buy a book or borrow one from the library and
use that to learn how to do it, but people don't seem to think thats cool
any more.


--
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e-mail:ghudson [at] hostroute.net
http://www.hostroute.com/resellers Host 5 web sites for $9 per month
http://www.nameroute.com/ Domain Names with free hosting and email $15

Karl Groves <karl@NOSPAMkarlcore.com> wrote:

I never really got around to learning them, the college I attended was
the only one in our state that used IBM mainframes instead of unix
boxes, then I got sucked into Windoze, and just never was in a place
where the only way out was to learn regexp. But regardless of what
they say, us old dogs can, and do, learn new tricks.

I'm not the least bit concerned about the usability aspect, Karl;
writing usable software is my stock-in-trade and I've been doing it
since Adam was in diapers. I'm more concerned about spending time
working on the thing then finding out there's a free equivalent, or
that nobody cares to use it anyway. It would be fun to do just for
fun, but poverty sucks and I'm trying to work my way out of that
schtick.

What do you think, Windoze based app, or web based app? Heck I could
even set it up on my site so that a guy could pay some small amount
say $5 and use it for a month, etc.

--
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MGW <mgw1979@hotmail.com> wrote:

Thanks, neither is an alternative worth pursuing for me. We'll see
what others might have to say.

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"Gordon Hudson" <gordon@usenet3.hostroute.co.uk> wrote:

I've written some fairly sophisticated lead-them-by-the-hand code over
the past few decades, don't be too certain about what can and can't be
done.

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hug <contact_info@sig_line.clickit> wrote in
news:01kd125295u9t4iu77301m9u3642voijec@4ax.com:

A lot of people say that, but they really don't know enough about users.
Shoot, I work for a usability company and still have to deal with HFEs
criticizing what I do.



--
Karl Groves
http://karlcore.com
http://chevelle.karlcore.com

Accessibility Discussion List: http://smallerurl.com/?id=6p764du

hug wrote:
Would you really want to limit your target audience to Windows users? I
wouldn't. Limiting to a web-based application may not be quite what you
want either...

One thing that I'd consider is to work with Java. That way, you can do a
cross-platform monolithic application, or a web applet to provide the
users with an option. I'm sure there are other languages you can do this
with as well, but Java is the one that I have actually used before for a
practical purpose.

Just my $.02

--
Justin Koivisto, ZCE - justin@koivi.com
http://koivi.com

Karl Groves <karl@NOSPAMkarlcore.com> wrote:

Most of the difficulty in writing usable software stems from having to
work with inadequate infrastructures, and if there's anything I do
better than writing usable software it's writing infrastructure to
back it. Reading that it sound pretty arrogant. I used to suck at
writing usable software, then I spent a few years as a Tech Writer and
learned another way of looking at it. So it goes.

There will always be people criticizing what you do, because you will
always be short on time and unless you write your own you are likely
to be working with inadequate infrastructures. I criticize my own
stuff, constantly, and don't think I've ever completed a project
without looking at it and thinking "this is crap, I should have...".
The ecommerce engine I'm trying to complete is no exception, I'm
running so close to the nonsurvival line financially that everything
is done as quickly as I can without puking outright when I look at the
code, once it's "out there" and I start (hopefully) getting some
customer feedback, there will be time (again, hopefully) to clean up
and enhance and tune, ideally without much of that being visible from
the outside. Since I would like to rewrite the whole thing as a
C-language cgi app, part of me looks at it as a prototyping
experience, and part of me just keeps grinding away.

There is absolutely no substitute for early prototyping, none
whatsoever, no matter how good your concepts and your instincts are
the clumsiness doesn't come out until you actually try to use it, and
when the clumsiness comes out it'll do it in spades according to
Murphy, we're talking massive redesign on-the-fly.

Then there's the "how long" question... as in, how long have you been
working for a usability company? 5 years? 10 years? 15? I've been
cranking the stuff out since 1968, a guy would have to be braindead
not to "get it" in that much time.

I think the 5 most important things that stint as a tech-writer taught
me are (1) know your customer, (2) customers don't want to play with
the product they want to get on with their business, (3) more than 6
of anything is confusing, (4) if the customer doesn't understand it
that's your fault not his, and (5) tech writing is too much work for
not enough pay. <g>

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