Acknowledgements

Showmedo depends on a large number of libraries and tools, pretty much all of them open-source. So here, in no particular order, are some of the projects we would like to thank. If you think we've missed out anything key, just drop us a line and we'll add it to the roll-call.

Python libraries

  • The Turbogears web-framework is the model-viewer-controller (MVC) heart of Showmedo. This aggregates a number of great Python modules, among them Cherrypy and SQLObject.
  • Genshi is our much loved templating language of choice.
  • The Python Imaging Library does wonderfully for most of our programmatic graphic needs.
  • Docutils is used in various places and is the backbone of our new learning-paths.

Tools

  • The best editor in the world ;), Vim is used pretty much exclusively these days for developing the site.
  • The amazing Firefox extension, Firebug is used for general CSS, HTML and javascript hackery.
  • Also the Colorzilla, MeasureIt and Webdeveloper Firefox add-ons.
  • We continue to be blown away by the capabilities of the wonderful vector graphics editor Inkscape, used for pretty much all on-site graphics work.
  • FFmpeg and MPlayer meet our audio/visual processing needs.

Others

  • We're a LAMP setup, with the L being the Redhat Linux operating system, the A being Apache web-server, the M being the MySQL database and the P being the Python programming language. All industrial strength open-source libraries.
  • The open-source graph visualization project Graphviz is used with our new learning-paths.
  • We have settled on the fantastic, lightweight jQuery javascript library, which does indeed make javascript suck less. Among the plugins used are ui.tabs, tablesorter, thickbox, form and validate.
  • Wordpress proudly powers our blog.

Showmedo is a peer-produced video-tutorials and screencasts site for free and open-source software (FOSS)- with the exception of some club videos, the large majority are free to watch and download.

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Educating the Open-source Community With Showmedo

Although as important as the software it supports, education and documentation are relatively neglected in the Open-source world. Coders love to code, and explaining how best to use or improve the software tends to be deferred or even sidelined.

At Showmedo we believe the community can play a vital role here and also say thanks for the tools and software that make our lives easier. If you have a piece of software you love or a programming langugage you are enthusiastic about, why not make a screencast showing others how to use it? All the stuff you wish you'd been told, the tips, tricks, insights that would have saved you time and frustration.

Screencasting is easier than you think, and we're happy to help you. You can emailus for advice or just use some of the how-to screencasts on the site. This screencasting learning-pathis a good place to start.

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Feedback

Showmedo's development is fairly rapid and bugs will inevitably creep in. If you have any problems please drop us a line using the contact address below. Likewise, any suggestions for improvements to the site are gratefully received.

feedback@showmedo.com