PHPDN Codeoff!! [Finished]

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PHPDN Codeoff!! [Finished]

Post by pickle »

New Contest!!!

It's been getting a little boring around here, so one of the mods suggested we have a PHPDN Codeoff. Anyone who wants to enter will have until the end date posted below to develop the coolest project they can think of & build. The contest is open to anyone who wants to participate, with the exception of us moderators who have volunteered to be judges. Below are the conditions & judging categories that will be in place:

Rules:
  1. Entries must be submitted by September 1, 2007 11:59:59 GMT.
  2. Only entries sent via private message to the administrator of this contest (username: pickle) will be accepted. Any entries that are publically posted will be disqualified as judge impartiality may be compromised.
  3. Entries must be hosted by the applicant.
  4. Entries must have accompanied source code - either as displayed source if one file, or in a zip/tgz download if multiple files.
  5. Code must be in PHP5.
  6. Only one entry per person/group.
  7. Code must be released under an open source license. Any of the licenses found at: http://www.opensource.org/license/alphabetical are acceptable. We will not accept code released under a proprietary license that limits use to PHPDN or it's members, as we feel everyone should be able to read & benefit from all entries.
  8. Entries are not and can not be associated with PHPDN, the Developer's Network, or any of its aliases, affiliates, sister sites, or projects.
  9. All winning source code will be released by PHPDN (on behalf of & with full credit to the original author). If you do not want your source code released, do not participate.
  10. Entries may not contain original source code written prior to the announcement of this contest. Third party libraries such as Smarty, ADOdb, etc are acceptable.
Categories
  • Code: cleanliness (was the code laid out nicely & readable, etc.) [out of 20]
  • Code: consistency of style (were parenthesis location & function parameter order consistent, etc.) [out of 20]
  • Code: documentation (How descriptive/helpful was the documentation) [out of 20]
  • Code: efficiency (most appropriate function/method for the task) [out of 10]
  • Design: appearance (how visually appealing was the design of the entry) [out of 5]
  • Design: layout usability (how easy is the entry to use & learn) [out of 15]
  • Design: accessibility (how accessible is the site to people with reading & visual disabilities) [out of 10]
  • Design: standards (Markup, CSS, usability) compliance [out of 15]
  • Project: degree of difficulty (how grandiose and/or difficult was the scope of the entry) [out of 10]
Total project score: 125

Now for the good part - the prizes: All participants in the winning entry (entries can be submitted by yourself or by a group of people), will receive a badge just like those given out for the PHPDN awards. In addition, each winning participant will be able to have a custom title (much like mine is 'Briney Mod') of your choosing (and approval by the mod team). To the best of my knowledge, we've never given out custom titles as a prize before - so you'll be in an elite group.

As the rules say, you've got to PM me with the URL of your entry. I'll need a URL for the actual working site as well as the source code in a .zip/ or a .tgz file. I won't be downloading the source code until the end of the contest, so feel free to PM me early with the URL & update your code as the contest progresses.

Good luck to everyone! I can't wait to see the cool stuff you folks will come up with!


Update Since we got no entries, there was no winner. I'd like to say better luck next time, but since we had no one try this first time... :?
Last edited by pickle on Tue Sep 04, 2007 9:47 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by s.dot »

Flippin' sweet. I have a great idea.
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Post by JellyFish »

Would the contest consider the development of other platforms as a valid entry, such as the iPhone?
Last edited by JellyFish on Mon Jul 23, 2007 8:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by s.dot »

Question regarding the use of pre-existing code.

Such as the use of templating engines such as Smarty or Template Lite. And feyd's SHA256 class.

Are these allowed?
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Post by Ollie Saunders »

scottayy wrote:Question regarding the use of pre-existing code. Such as the use of templating engines such as Smarty or Template Lite. And feyd's SHA256 class.
Are these allowed?
Allowing certain source code is a grey area that we don't really want to go into. Outlawing all existing source code is very clear cut nice way of doing it.

I have a few questions:
Does it have to be an application? Or is a library acceptable?
Am I correct in thinking I can begin writing my entry tonight?
Can I write my entry in Ruby? I'm joking :P

Btw guys this is a great idea and the prizes sound good too, I thank you for organising this.
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Post by onion2k »

JellyFish wrote:Would the contest consider the development of other platforms as a valid entry, such as the iPhone?
You might be at a disadvantage if the judges can't see your application running.
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Post by pickle »

1) Since the iPhone just runs web pages for apps, you're more than welcome to make it the target platform. However, the judges will be viewing entries in browsers, so if it looks like crap in a browser... :wink:

2) No pre-existing code period. To be honest, this rule was put in to place to prevent someone from entering a project they've been working on for a year, not to restrict third-party libraries. However, ole is right that disallowing any pre-existing code is clean, so that's the way it'll be.

3) Yes, libraries are acceptable. However, unless you've got a public face to it, your entry will suffer in the design aspect. Notice though that there's no "Design: complexity" category, so as long as you can 'weaponize' your library to a useful site & make it look good, you should have a good shot.

4) The contest began the moment I started this thread - so go nuts tonight.

5) You're welcome to write the project in Ruby, but that reminds me of a hidden category: "Was written in PHP", which is out of a billion points. You're going to have a tough time battling back from getting zero on that category ;).
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Post by The Phoenix »

pickle wrote: 2) No pre-existing code period. To be honest, this rule was put in to place to prevent someone from entering a project they've been working on for a year, not to restrict third-party libraries. However, ole is right that disallowing any pre-existing code is clean, so that's the way it'll be.

3) Yes, libraries are acceptable. However, unless you've got a public face to it, your entry will suffer in the design aspect. Notice though that there's no "Design: complexity" category, so as long as you can 'weaponize' your library to a useful site & make it look good, you should have a good shot.
I'm unclear on what this means for use of Smarty/Template-lite/Adodb/Adodb-lite. Do you mean we can use libraries as long as they are publicly available (like the previously mentioned items)?

No pre-existing code period doesn't seem to mesh with libraries are acceptable.

Put another way, can I do a "Hello, world!" program with template lite driving the output for this contest? (as an example, not for real)
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Post by Ollie Saunders »

By libraries are acceptable he means you may enter a library you have written yourself - twas in response to my question.

Oh and how are you going to know if I've used pre-existing code or not. I've got framework of my own writing that nobody other than myself has seen, for instance. I won't use it but how do I know other in a similar situation won't either?

Also what about JavaScript, is that allowed? May I use JQuery? What if the majority of the code is JavaScript. Same question about XSLT and PECL.
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Post by pickle »

~ole is right - by libraries I meant your final entry can be a library rather than a full application.

As for whether we can tell if you've used pre-existing code...we can't. You're right that there's really no way for us to tell. We figured everyone would be cool enough to obey the rules though.

Javascript is allowed, but if the majority of your code is Javascript, it's not going to work too well with Javascript turned off (which would affect your usability/accessability mark). JQuery is not allowed as it is pre-existing code. You've raised some good points though that third party libraries would be helpful. However, the rules have been laid down so we won't change them for this run - maybe for next time.
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Post by Ollie Saunders »

As for whether we can tell if you've used pre-existing code...we can't.
I suppose you could look at the dates on subversion commits and see if it is feasible whatever amount of code could have been created in that amount of time. I don't expect you do that for all entries. If there was doubt over a particular entry, access to the repo might settle the dispute.

Also, will there be judgement on the creativity of idea / usefulness of the app or library?
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Post by pickle »

ole wrote:Also, will there be judgement on the creativity of idea / usefulness of the app or library?
Yes, that'll be wrapped up in the Project: degree of difficulty category.
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Post by Ollie Saunders »

How much is each category worth? I'm guessing they aren't of equal importance.

Oh and in case anyone hasn't worked out, I'm definitely entering :)
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Post by The Phoenix »

pickle wrote:~ole is right - by libraries I meant your final entry can be a library rather than a full application.

As for whether we can tell if you've used pre-existing code...we can't. You're right that there's really no way for us to tell. We figured everyone would be cool enough to obey the rules though.
Building an interesting application using no libraries in one month? Interesting challenge, I'll agree.

But it discourages code reuse, and forces people to reinvent the wheel substantially. Oh well, maybe next contest. :)
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Post by superdezign »

I'd enter, but time is money. :-p

If anyone who's already interested would like some assistance, I'd be willing to lend a hand, though. Doing it on my own would slow me down on my current project.
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