29 / 6 / 2009 -- That Wasn't So Hard

Greetings.

Well, that wraps it. Phase IV is complete, and Alpha 1 is complete. Only one more Alpha, two Betas, and a Release Candidate, and we'll be up and running in full.

There's a few other milestones to mark, as well. First, Zero Hour Productions enters its fourth year of existence under a dedicated domain name. Second, Project Omega enters its second year of implementation, and continues onward into Phase V. Both of these tie directly in to each other...without Zero Hour Productions. Project Omega would not exist, and vice versa. Third, select Phase III material has been declassified. Phase III included a lot of interface design and other graphical goodness. Check it out.

A quick note on the development schedule:
Originally, the remaining Project Omega time was divided equally among the remaining six Phases. Since the start of development, that timeline has shifted instead to four Phases total, one of which remains the standard twelve weeks and the other three grow to twenty weeks. The Phase breaks will stay at one week in length, save for this one, which will be foregone entirely.

Each twenty week Phase represents a major section of the development cycle, one each of Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced cycles. Each cycle is further subdivided into four week chunks, with each chunk dedicated to one of five major components to be integrated into Zero Hour Productions: Articles, Audio, Downloads, Gallery, and Projects.

Phase V, the Basic cycle, includes developing the user interface, linking to the database, and data presentation and browsing. Since the most prominent content type currently is written material (i.e., this novel you're reading now), we will focus on the Article component first, with due consideration as to the next component when the time arrives.

As for the overall timeframe, the target date remains the end of 2010, albeit a few weeks earlier than anticipated originally due to fewer inter-Phase breaks. With Phase V looming ahead, the next break works out to about the middle of November. Granted, there's a greater period of time between breaks, but now that coding is approaching serious complexity, I can no longer afford to spend days at a time away from it.

One more thing...there's really no need for a lot of documentation from here on out, since most of it will be un the code, anyways. Less overhead, more fun.

Mr. Bond, signing off.