! The Rembrandt.ie main script
variable Script
rest get Script from `_load/scripts~rembrandt` or
begin
alert `Failed to load the main script. Please try again.` cat newline cat newline
cat `The reported error message was:` cat newline cat the error
end
run Script
My name is Graham Trott and I’m the developer of the Rembrandt.ie website. I’m writing this in October 2019 and I’m currently 71 years old.
If you are reading this it’s for one of a couple of reasons. You may be curious to see what the page source code looks like, or you may be charged with making changes, perhaps long after I’m no longer available.
Almost all software becomes harder and harder to read the more time passes since it was written. After a few years, even the original author will have some difficulty in figuring out what was done, and anyone coming new to a project will have major trouble in all but the simplest of cases. So these notes are intended to provide a starting point.
Rembrandt.ie is hosted on WordPress and coded using a custom high-level scripting language called EasyCoder, that is itself written in JavaScript. So you can say quite correctly that the site is powered by JavaScript. At the time of writing it’s de rigeur to use a framework such as Angular or React, but after a few years these will become obsolete as newer technologies arrive. In any case, frameworks are not designed to make it easy to pick up a project; they’re intended to benefit developers who are writing new code. As such they are an implicit admission that the language itself (JavaScript) is not up to the job and requires extra features not provided by its authors.
My preference is to use a better language, one that is designed to do the job without requiring a host of bolt-on extras. Since none were available I wrote my own and it’s called EasyCoder. I won’t provide a step-by-step tutorial (I have to leave you some work to do!) but just point you to where you can get the information you need.
EasyCoder has its own website at https://easycoder.software. This is aimed at WordPress users but will only continue to exist as long as someone goes on paying the hosting fees. Once I’m no longer around they may well stop. For this and other reasons there is a second EasyCoder site at easycoder.github.io. This includes the EasyCoder Codex, which is a tutorial on the language and a complete programmers’ reference manual. The repository is at https://github.com/gtanyware/EasyCoder. Inside the Codex is a table of contents with a number of articles about building websites with EasyCoder. One of these explains the mechanism used here on Rembrandt.ie, where the home page contains just a boot script that loads the main script(s) to do all the work. With the help of the debugger in your browser you should be able to get familiar with the architecture, though in most cases all you will need is to know the script commands themselves, all of which are documented in the Codex.
And that’s all I have to say. I hope to be around for a few years yet, so do contact me if you would like to know anything. After that it’ll be out of my hands.