Flashes of Panic

I have been hacking at the wish list project for a good chunk of today. I think it’s workable, now, though it lacks a lot of refinement (and certainly lacks any more than functional design.)

I think if there was ever a quiz which asked, “What’s your favorite flow control function?” (maybe the “Intolerable Geek” quiz,) mine would be switch(). In fact, I think the world needs more switch(), because it’s not binary, and it’s very flexible. It can even be inclusive. I’m very fond of switch(). I’m also (belatedly) realizing that my total lifetime output of PHP code could be reduced by some significant percentage (and probably run marginally faster) if I used list() more judiciously. There’s always more to learn, always room to grow. (Or shrink, in this case.)

Obviously, I’ve set this up for me and my family. However, it’s arranged such that it can handle multiple families, and (obviously) overlapping families; you tell it which families you want to see lists for, they can then see yours, and off you go. If the family you want isn’t there, you add it.

I’ve got a few beta testers in the family, but some of my family members are notorious technophobes, and I want to make sure I’ve ironed this out as much as possible. Is anyone here interested in beta testing? This isn’t going to hack your system, erase your email, phone your mother and call her names if there’s a bug; however, it does require anyone you want to see your list to also register (and therefore implicitly create a list of their own.)

(And if you’re asking, “Why not use Amazon’s?” you haven’t been following along: roughly, the problem is that with an Amazon wish list, you can see when someone bought something for you. No fun, in my opinion. Plus, this setup allows others to suggest items for you—and you can’t see the suggestions, either. So it allows for some serendipity.)

Let me know. Drop a comment, email, whatever. If there’s interest, I’ll publish the URL this weekend, or just email it to anyone who asks.