Technologies Used in Who's Up 4?

Who's Up 4? is a firm supporter of the power and sophistication of Open Source Software and the communities surrounding this movement. Here we would like to offer our thanks to the brains behind the following technologies that we have used extensively, and which have made this web application possible.

Basic Technologies

Gnu/Linux - what can we say about this that could even do justice to what a fantastic combination these form. No viruses, extreme power, the system lets you do what you want the way you want - it's a geek's dream come true.

I'm a PC, and I use Linux - life without walls or windows - just little penquins and wildebeest from the Serengetti.

Apache - with over half the world's web servers using apache, where would the World Wide Web be without you? You're Amazing!

MySQL - a fantastic database whose power exceeds that of many of its commercial competitors. Easy to use, extremely well documented, and suitable for the majority of websites. We salute you!

PHP - that wonderfully recursive acronym that we think really stands for "PHantastic Product". PHP is the driving technology behind the web pages, is simple to code and very powerful. Thank you!

Javascript/ECMAScript and the prototype library, which has brought the pages alive, and enabled quick downloads and an application feel to the site.

HTML - Of course, we'd have to mention the World Wide Web invented by Tim Berners-Lee and defined by the W3C Consortium. Without you there would be no web.

Programmes & Resources

Telemorphix - Our Internet Hosting Company - fast efficient and so full of technical knowledge they could blow your socks off - if you're wearing any that is.

Quanta - Used as our main editor - an absolutely fantastic programme for editing almost any kind of text document and perfectly suited to PHP and HTML. Thanks guys!

Hindsa`s Extreme Manager - We made extreme use of "Extreme Manager" - a fantastic software development life cycle management tool that made the whole development process from concept to implementation a breeze. Thanks Hindsa!

Smarty Template Engine - Smarties love Smarty! Smarty has made separation of the controlling code, and the presentation information an absolute doddle. No complicated hybrid pages of php and html for us - Smarty makes sure everything is where it should be. Seriously, Smarty's Sensational!

SVN - a great code versioning program that has kept our code safe and sound.

Assembly Sys Data Services - Our site makes extensive use of Assembly Sys's location databases. Really easy to integrate, and very reasonably priced! Without it, we wouldn't know what invites to send you!

Code Snippets

The web is a fantastic place for finding hints, discussions and solutions to niggling problems. Here we say thanks to those people whose ideas and code have been integrated somewhere into the system.

Jac Wright wrote a great function for "lazy-loading" of classes in PHP. It's proved perfect for speeding up the site by making sure only those classes that are necessary are loaded.

Nicholas C. Zakas wrote an article describing how to develop autosuggest boxes which has been used extensively throughout the site.

www.ajaxload.info is a great place to generate your ajax 'loading ... please wait' icons like this one so you can show the user something is going on.

Dean Edwards` Javascript Packer is fantastic for reducing the download size of the javascript used to run the site. Thanks to this we've managed about a 60% reduction! Thanks very much Dean!

Safalra`s Colour Picker is a great tool for letting someone choose a colour using a Photoshop-esque tool. It was easy to add and worked like a charm! Thanks Safalra!