TheCodeCave.Com prepares for the D4PHP.COM launch!

Well, it’s been a Busy,  three weeks here.  Things are finally falling into place.

Sometimes that just happens. 

You swing into these intense periods where things go 90 mph.  

It all started when my wife’s latest commissions check on her book buys her a sweet tablet PC, gets me a motorcycle and now (if it ever stops raining and snowing) I’m back on two wheels after 11 years! (pics soon!!!).  (All you Delphi knitters go and buy her book please!  I know you are out there!) 

Then CodeRage goes into full swing and starts vying for my attention.   Oh, and I also signed the papers refinacing the house.  Then my yard collapses into a giant cess pool, only to be replaced by a mud bog the following week.  Then I’m approved as a Google Summer of Code WordPress mentor and suddenly I’m back to reviewing resumes and project propsals!   It’s like I’m back in my old role of Director of Software Development again.

And then I land the after-hours job of converting CodeGear’s 90 blogs over to WordPress MU.   Yes, you can pinch me, I’m working for the Borland Corporation. 

THEN on Friday the Delphi for PHP field test ends and D4P is been released!  (If you are interested in the product, you can download a 1 day trial here. )  Well, that means it’s time to announce something else I’ve had in the works for a while. 

Coinciding with the release of Delphi for PHP, I’m announing an upcoming community site called “Designed for PHP” at http://www.D4PHP.com.  The tagline for the site is:

Designed for PHP – Bringing the Delphi mindset to PHP development.

This site, created using Delphi for PHP, will not only host a VBulletin  forum but will include articles, reviews, and product announcements pertinent to the soon to be thriving Delphi for PHP community.  I’m in the process of connecting with authors, moderators and administrators who are intersted in joining me in this venture.

 Now, obviously I’ve got some things that will be taking up my free time over the next couple weeks.  But I still hope to get some feed back from you all as to what you’d like to see at the site.  Some ideas from people I’ve already discussed this with include:

1. Community forum – Software has been purchased, the forum is up and being configured.
2. Integration with the NewsGroups – This idea fed off of a question from Serge Dosyukov and I know just how to pull it off.  The Delphi for PHP newsgroups will be part of the Forum and if all goes well (my host sometimes has restrictions on comunication with outside servers) they will be fully integraed with the ability to post to the groups directly from the site under your own login name.
3. Component & Component package reviews
4. Plenty of user created demo videos – it’s easy to do and free!
5. ???

and THAT’s why I am announcing this before it is fully up and running.  I want to know what else YOU’D like to see out of the site.  Do you have any thoughts or suggestions?  I’ll be doing work off and on with the site over the next two weeks and working with some interested parties who can get the ball rolling, but we need ideas and a goal for when, in about a month, I can give it some dedicated attention.

 So, do you want to see on D4PHP.com?  Does anyone remember “The Delphi Super Page”?  If you do, what made THAT page so great?  Pre-2000, there was no where else a Delphi programmer needed to go.   Why was that?  Any thoughts?

 Jot them down here or wander over to http://www.D4PHP.com/forum and express yourself!  Let’s see what this can turn into!