Been a while since I talked shop, so here’s my overview.

During May/June 2006 I was engaged in a review and refactor of the pre-alphas that were released the previous November/December. The main aim of this process was to remove code duplication, implement a Test Driven Design approach, facilitate documentation, implement several alternate LITE libraries, and basically clean everything up. A prime focus was refactoring the Partholan Library.

The process was largely completed. The remaining tasks are:

1. Delete the older Partholan files from Subversion TRUNK
2. Complete the Controller code, possibly by using the Zend Framework controller (it’s pretty simple and easy to adapt if needed)
3. Check the accuracy of inline phpDoc comments
4. Complete any remaining Unit Tests

Once done, the next stage of development will revolve around Web Design. I would like to get some idea of the final interface. I have already put in place a simple Theme feature which operates primarily on CSS (since all pages are CSS only with no tables).

The last part is implementing the actual Domain Logic for the game. This is relatively simple, since a lot of it has existed for some time. This part is the easiest section and will result in a series of Alpha versions – the time for pre-alpha’s is over.

So my plans for the next two weeks?

- Add the Controller area (priority)
- Clean up the SVN repository TRUNK
- Complete remaining Unit Tests

I’m hoping to do it in one week starting at the weekend.