We’d like to take this time to thank everyone for their support and feedback over the last year. We’ve enjoyed brining you Touchpoint Gallery and are looking forward to great things in the New Year. Until january 15, 2008 we are pleased to let you know that you can Go Unlimited for 25% less. Just enter the coupon code HAPPYHOLIDAYS during the purchase process. Click here and save 25%.
We wish you a Happy Holiday and all the best in 2008!
This past fall, research firm IDC released a study that indicated more than half of all businesses on earth use open source software. Touchpoint Studios is one of those businesses. We use open source technologies for everything from software development and quality assurance to our web presence and community support. What follows is a roll call of all the open source technologies that we use to operate and to develop our flagship product, Touchpoint Gallery.
Ogre Rendering Engine
Ogre is the graphics rendering engine in Touchpoint Gallery. This is what allows us to utilize your computer’s graphics card to display your digital photography in a rich 3D environment. Ogre’s object-oriented API fits in nicely with our own and provides the flexibility we need to do things like define our own render window and swap in and out entire 3D scenes on the fly. It does all this while maintaining a high level of performance, which allows us to deliver a smooth frame-rate and thus an exceptional user experience. They also have one of the most helpful communities I have ever encountered in software development.
Python Scripting Language
Much of the inner workings of Touchpoint Gallery are written in the Python programming language. We have embedded Python as a scripting language within the app. With the help of another open source tool, SWIG, we have been able to bridge our C++ API with our Python API. This saves us a lot of time during development since we don’t have to recompile the code every time we make a change. It also allows us to deliver add-ons to the application after shipping and without requiring you to reinstall, such as new Templates or Picture Sources.
NSIS Installer
When it’s time to package up Touchpoint Gallery, we make an installer using NSIS. Thanks to yet another helpful community and a wealth of plugins, NSIS lets you make Windows installers that do just about anything you want them to. It also fits seamlessly into our automated build process, which is a huge time-saver when you’re making multiple builds per day.
Subversion Version Control
Our code and assets sleep soundly at night in the Subversion version control system. Truth be told, I’ve been using SVN for about 5 years now and have never had a single problem with it. No lost commits, no corrupt databases, none of the problems that my developer friends complain about with other proprietary systems. The TortoiseSVN Windows shell extension puts all of SVN’s client functionality into your Windows context menu, making it as easy to use as Windows Explorer. And like NSIS, it fits seamlessly into our automated build process.
Mantis Bug Tracking
When we find bugs in our products (a rare occasion to be sure), we record and track them using Mantis. It took all of a couple minutes to install and is easy to maintain. It has an easy-to-use interface as well as all the features we need to effectively communicate bug information with each other: email notifications, RSS, file attachments, etc. I’ve used a couple of other bug tracking systems in the past, both open source and proprietary. None have been as effective with a price tag like Mantis has.
LAMP Server Platform
We use a Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP platform on our servers for the same reasons that most people do. It’s easy to maintain, stable, fast, flexible, cost-effective and provides the ideal framework to run many of the other open source solutions which we have adopted. Brick Tamland sums up our feelings on LAMP in 3 words:
WordPress Blog
What you are reading now was published using WordPress blog software. When it was time to start the blog, we needed a solution that was easy to implement and it had to be customizable so it would fit in our site’s template. It had to be easy to administer and easy for everyone to use. WordPress meets all of these requirements and then some.
MoinMoin Wiki
We use MoinMoin for our internal knowledge base. It features an easy to use GUI editor so we don’t have to fuss with wiki markup. File attachments is also important to us for sharing types of data other than raw text. And because it is written in Python, it is very easy to extend and customize.
phpBB Forum
With the help of phpBB, we recently opened forums for users to socialize and discuss all things Touchpoint. phpBB is the most commonly used forum software on the internet, so you’ve no doubt seen it around. Like many of the other open source solutions we picked, it was easy to get up and running, is easy to maintain and it fit into our site’s template. They also have a large, supportive community which has produced countless useful mods and plugins.
phplist Newsletters
We manage our mailing lists and send newsletters using phplist. It has a super simple installation and enabled us to customize the sign-up form on our site. It also has a terrific GUI for editing HTML messages in the browser (FCKeditor to be precise). Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to receive regular updates.
As you can see, open source software has played an integral role in the day to day operations of Touchpoint Studios. And in turn, we will jump at the opportunity to give back to the open source community whenever possible. In the meantime, we will continue to look to the open source community first for cost-effective solutions.
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