Bookshelved Wiki: CoverToCover

Cover to Cover, Rob Perree, [ISBN 905662282X (amazon.com, search)]

A McGuffin for our discussion of Usemod tweaks to retrieve book covers.

I wrote a little Perl [gizmo to get book cover images] from Amazon for any given ISBN, to possibly make Bookshelved pages a little more colourful. This may or may not be a good thing, depending on the community's opinion - I did it for HardTimes, for example. To use it, enter an ISBN and just copy and paste the URL of the resulting image size of your choice. Please do have a go and tell me what you think. -- EarleMartin

Earle, I like your gizmo. I used it on a few ISBN's and after viewing the resulting URL's of the images, I'm seeing a pattern for Amazon images. For instance, here are the URL's for ISBN 0385486642 (amazon.com, search)...

 http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0385486642.01.LZZZZZZZ
 http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0385486642.01.MZZZZZZZ
 http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0385486642.01.TZZZZZZZ

(Yes; I developed the script after playing about with [what arguments you could pass to the cover script]. - Earle)

I wonder if we could extend UseMod? with a new tag that would give us book images when given an ISBN and a size? --DaveHoover

: Neat idea! Though how about we just default to the medium size for all ISBNs and make it automatic? With a bit of tweaking of the stylesheet and the usemod script, we could have the image in the page header. -- tarquin

I like the idea. I have an issue with tweaking Usemod, though - no unit tests. Any Perl hackers would like to pair on adding UTs to that fine Wiki engine ? -- lb

: I haven't a clue what a unit test is I'm afraid, and Wiki:UnitTest hasn't helped. But I've tweaked Usemod extensively on my own wiki, so it's something I could work on implementing. -- tarquin

Count me in, Laurent. How would you like to handle "pairing" from across the Atlantic, though? --DaveHoover

Be warned - hacking on UseModWiki? has been known to make people hate Perl! By the way, [version 1.0] is out. -- EarleMartin

I downloaded UseMod? this morning and reviewed the source on train to work. It doesn't make me hate Perl, though, nothing could do that. It just makes me appreciate self-documenting code, because UseMod? is far from that. How about I get my hands on PerlUnit? and write a few unit tests to get us started? I wonder where I should post the tests? --DaveHoover

I could get a new Wiki and CVS repository up for the, well, call it a project. Unless there's a better solution, like Sourceforge or whatnot. If you're in a hurry to start, this page will serve. :) -- lb

OK, I spiked it. Then I tried to throw away the code and write some Wiki:PerlUnit tests. Hmm, that's not so easy with UseMod...perhaps someone else might find a way in. Here's the diff of my spike against the latest stable version of UseMod: /DaveSpike

I have no idea what "pairing" is.... but I've written the patch anyway. See /TarquinPatch

What an interesting opportunity. Three thoughts which show my biases pretty starkly.

We might be better served going through the services API that Amazon provides. The way they resolve URLs might change at any time. The services API will at least have to include some communication about a change. I haven't looked past the FAQ, but the URL is here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/ref=sc_bb_l_0/002-3313048-2320068?no=3435361&me=A36L942TSJ2AJA&node=3434651
I suspect that netmeeting, or at the least a chat client would handle a lot of the "pairing" support. I have had success with less immediate collaboration requirements and mechanisms. Half-hour e-mail cycle times, with a repository, or even files as attachments still works pretty well.
There is something strange about Perl. Every time I've seen maintenance attempted on a significant piece of functionality, it's been problematic. I'm unclear whether it's the data set I'm dealing with, the language or the culture about the language. The data points I have suggest powerful prototyping without adding the extras that make a sustainable system - repository, manifest, validation of some kind, dependency management, documentation of any kind. Counterexamples?

Just musing here. -- JamesBullock

Well the Perl "community" is pretty odd. Take a squint at this wiki [page], see the cartoon? Now scroll down to my comments. Ward edited that section back to civility, but the initial response was stunning---the only reason the Perlistas could imagine at first for any developers not taking to Perl like ducks to water was that they were inexperienced. Then that they were too experienced. Then that they had the wrong kind of experience. Or that I was a troll. And so on. Anything but that Perl was somehow less than ideal.

As to the language itself, it seems to permit but not (in the terms of TheDesignOfEverydayThings) afford practices that lead to maintainable systems. Thus, it can be done but most Perl programmers don't overcome the barriers to doing it.--KeithBraithwaite

It is ironic that I came to read TheDesignOfEverydayThings through the references in DamianConway?'s Wiki:ObjectOrientedPerl. --DaveHoover

A BookOnTheBookshelf