Interview with Paul, Owner of WSN Links Script

[-MGS-]

Interview with Paul, Owner of WSN Links Script

WSN Link Directory Script Can Be Found Here:-
http://scripts.webmastersite.net/wsnlinks/

Interview:

Q. Are you able to give us a short insight into your background?

A. I've spent my life in northern California, learned C++ in college (along
with bits of C and assembly) and picked up PHP on my own later. I could
go back further and say I started coding on Atari basic as a kid, moving
on to qbasic and visual basic in my teen years. I got internet access
and made my first webpage in '99.

Q. How did the idea of WSN link directory come to you?

A. In 2002 I needed a link directory for a couple of my websites. Looking
through existing directory scripts I couldn't find one that was quite
customizable enough for me. I'd already had it in mind to learn PHP, so
I decided to create my own script with customizability as its top
priority. I was running a webmaster resources site so I decided to
release the script I was making for free with a link back to the site in
the footer, hoping to make the site more popular. WSN Links 1.0 came
together quickly and was released in August 2002, a very simple script
but already fully templated.

About six months later it was rewritten to become object-oriented with 2.0. I had in mind from early on that the code should become adaptable beyond just links directories, and kept the idea of a link abstracted enough that it could become an image, article or thread.

Q. What was your biggest challenge getting the WSN link directory script
to where it is now?

A. Probably the biggest challenge was learning to hold back new features
for new major version numbers instead of just adding them to the current
version. To improve stability I had to slow down the rate of
development. It's difficult to tell people "you could do that in the
version I'm running, but you won't get it for another month or two."

More can be found at:-

http://www.directory-owners.com/forumdisplay.php?f=34