Wrapping up my RetroChallenge 2024 project
The end of the work on WebCard marked the completion of my RetroChallenge 2024 project, in time as hoped.
I accomplished the initial goal of extending NoteCards to visit websites. This is my Linux desktop after traversing a NoteCards link to a Web card which opened the associated URL in Firefox:
As the RetroChallenge encourages to do I learned a lot, shared my experience, and had lots of fun with retro stuff.
WebCard is not my first NoteCards project but helped me explore other features of the system, particularly the definition of new types of cards. Most of the work on WebCard involved researching the NoteCards API and writing code.
Once I understood the relevant API calls, implementing the planned features took relatively little code. NoteCards comes with an extensive, well designed and documented API that enables to add a lot of functionality by mostly plugging into the public hooks.
The NoteCards manual has nearly all the information I needed. However, to understand some features or subtle points of the API I had to study some of the NoteCards code, particularly the source that defines the File card type because of the similarities with what WebCard does. Some throwaway code and experimentation with the interactive Lisp environment plugged the last information gaps.
The project generated a flow of material for my blog and Mastodon profile. I posted frequent short updates on Mastodon and longer reports on the blog. This drained time and focus too.
The main takeaway of the project is that Medley Interlisp is a rich toolbox with which new programs can be developed by combining other programs as building blocks. NoteCards itself builds upon the TEdit text editor, the Sketch line drawaing program, the File Browser, and other tools.
As my first RetroChallenge I was lucky to complete the project. I set a goal reasonably achievable in one month but the actual work faced some unexpected detours that didn't impact the deadline.
What else to say? Mission accomplished.
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