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Windower is recruiting!

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    #1 Arcon

    Arcon

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    Posted 23 November 2013 - 10:14 AM

    Good evening ladies and gents,
     
    as the title says, the Windower team is recruiting. The reason for this, as some may have noticed from other threads, is that the current development team is drastically reduced due to SE sucking and not being able to motivate us to keep playing. Currently we have about 1.47 active core/plugin devs and about as many active addon devs, and they overlap as well.
     
    That is not a lot to maintain a project of this scale, especially since there are a number of fringe projects related to us that many might not know about yet. So what follows is a listing of projects we're currently maintaining (or rather, struggling to) along with a short description of what it entails. If you feel you're able and willing to contribute to any of them, feel free to PM any one of us or hit us up on IRC.
     
    Note that you can help out for more than one of these projects. Currently we all do a bit of everything anyway, so the lines are very blurry. One requirement we do expect from all of the projects is communication. For that we mainly use IRC, but for the less teamworky jobs in the list this isn't a definitive requirement. If you want to apply either send me a PM or hop on IRC (the latter is recommended, since you'll want to use it as part of the team regardless). You will find all of us on the FFOChat network (irc.ffochat.com) in the #windower channel. The easiest way to get there is to simply load the FFOChat plugin, it will automatically connect. To talk, then type /x <message>, where x is the channel number (2 for a default installation, it will say when you connect). You can also type /pm arcon <message> to talk to me directly.
     
    Also note that all specific language requirements can be relaxed if you already have general programming experience and are able to pick up new languages. We don't work on a strict schedule, it's not an issue if you take a while to get into it before you start working. Not like we're paying you or anything. And speaking of which, we're not paying you or anything! Consider it charity work for the poor souls having to deal with SE's software.
     
    So here's the list of things you can do to help out. If you're not sure about some of the requirements or what exactly it entails, feel free to ask about it.
     
    Plugin development
     
    This is a crucial area and the one that requires the most skill and knowledge. As some may have noticed, we shifted focus from plugins to addons, and we intend to continue that trend. However, there are plugins that still need maintenance or bug fixes (especially after every update), and some plugins cannot be converted to addons, because Lua lacks some crucial low-level functionality, and LuaCore needs to be maintained and developed as well. That's what this position is for.
     
    All plugins are written in C++, hence knowledge of it is appreciated, but not required if you're a good programmer and think you can pick it up. This will also entail bit-level trickery, working with pointers and general memory infrastructure, internal memory layout and packet analysis.
     
    Addon development/maintenance
     
    Addons can be developed by anyone, so this is a bit of an obvious position. However, many addon devs joined, made an addon and disappeared. Some don't work right and some require maintenance after an API change. Ideally, that shouldn't happen, but reality is rarely ideal. This is not quite an important position, but help with this would also be appreciated.
     
    General programming language is expected, Lua knowledge preferred, although that's pretty easy to pick up if you know any other languages.
     
    Wiki/doc maintenace
     
    Again, not terribly important, but since I'm lazy and stupid the docs often go out of date when I add to or change the API, and that shouldn't really happen. So this is a) for maintaining an accurate API reference, B) documentation and perhaps tutorials for Lua libraries and their usage and c) hopefully, eventually, a listing of plugins/addons and their documentation.
     
    This one requires some familiarity with various plugins/addons/LuaCore as well as communication with the dev team.
     
    FFXIDB
     
    This one is a three-parter.
     
    Website
     
    The actual website. This does not have to include visual design (although we definitely wouldn't say no to that), but mainly infrastructure (server setup, efficiency, DB handling, etc.).
     
    The website is written in Python (Flask) and we use Mongo DB with a Python ORM (conjure).
     
    Server-side data
     
    This includes collections and organization/display of all data we collect. This currently entails kill data, synth data, Voidwatch data and mob spawn data.
     
    Again, Python is the language of choice here, but more important is understanding of game data and a sense of statistics.
     
    Client-side data handling
     
    The FFXIDB plugin has been available on Windower 4.1 for a while, although as of now it's not much more than a minimap. This should be extended to incorporate data from the FFXIDB website in real-time, to look up NPC positions, mob spawn positions, drop rates and whatever else you can think of.
     
    The requirements are the same as for plugin development (it is just another plugin, after all) but might also include some networking.
     
    Resource management
     
    The age old problem of Spellcast not equipping new gear after an update, or better yet, crashing the game. Hardly anyone who hasn't been annoyed by that yet, and you can help! POLUtils was the tool of choice to extract resources with. We currently have our own tool we use for Windower-internal resources ever since Radec quit. Maintaining and expanding that will be the main concern of this position. One task will be Lua-formatted table output, so addons can include it easier than parsing XMLs.
     
    The program is written in C# (both ours and POLUtils), knowledge of that or general programming language will help. Also knowledge of game internals (especially DAT files and their infrastructure) will be useful, but we can explain that in detail if you're interested.
     
    Moderators
     
    While we're currently in no pressing need of forum moderators, if you're really interested and want to help, you can apply. What we could use is an issue moderator. Someone who browses old issues as well as new issues on our GitHub repository and tags them appropriately, sets priorities, assigns personnel, closes duplicates, answers what they know and just try to keep things organized in general.
     
    Some technical understanding (no actual programming knowledge) will be useful.
     
    Testers
     
    This is a crucial position and you don't even have to apply for it! As usual, we can always use people that help us test new features and debug them. No particular requirements for this one. Just be active, and report issues. Preferably on our issue tracker or on IRC (or both).

    • Xeye likes this

    #2 Yekyaa

    Yekyaa

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      Posted 21 January 2014 - 04:41 AM

      I wouldn't mind taking time out to work on code on occasion.  I'm currently in my 4th semester of college for Computer Science.  I've previously worked on FFACE and Windower Plugins. I can't give a lot of time dedicated to coding and I currently don't have the ability to play on a test character, but I hope to resolve that issue soon.  If there's anyone on the team left that remembers me, I'd be glad to help when I'm available. I have access to VS 2005 through 2013, with SVN access for them all as well as currently running Win7 Pro 64 with Windows 8.1 64-bit in a VM.  Let me know if there's anything I could do.

       

      Btw, is it possible to get access to my [email protected] email address or do you guys not use that anymore?  


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      #3 Arcon

      Arcon

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      Posted 21 January 2014 - 08:14 AM

      Hey, I do remember you, as I'm sure others do as well, although you probably don't remember me :) Feel free to drop by on IRC and say hi, can always use more hands on deck.



      #4 psyko_lakshmi

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        Posted 14 October 2014 - 07:18 AM

        I assume you are still recruiting help to keep windower afloat?

         

        I have next to zero programming experience, but can usually pick up a structured language reasonably. id be interested in helping in a low end capacity, such as information gathering and such if i can. primarily id like to assist in getting infobar's database up to date. but i cant find any help/information as to how to actually edit the database file on my pc.

         

        if i can be of any assistance, let me know. im kinda hoping that this may be a way to keep me interested in the game, as it seems to be dying for me. If i had a project or goal to work on, maybe i could stay interested.

         

        I do maintian an active account in game, if that matters.

        Main Character is Psyko on the Lakshmi server.

         

        Thx in advance.


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        #5 Iryoku

        Iryoku

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          Posted 14 October 2014 - 02:15 PM

          We definitely still need help, and we have plenty of stuff to do that doesn't directly involve programming, so I'm sure we can find something for you to do. Join us on IRC in the #windower channel (Arcon explains how to do this in the OP), and we can discuss things further.


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          #6 timstix

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            Posted 21 December 2014 - 09:17 AM

            I would be interested in started with some help mod and wiki/doc as I learn to help in more of a dev aspect. I have started working on and think that I am making some headway with repair the now the open source AP radar issue with everything appearing as PC. 



            #7 Arcon

            Arcon

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            Posted 09 January 2015 - 06:17 AM

            Also, feel free to open another (FFXIDB-related) thread for that, as we're currently derailing this ;)



            #8 Iryoku

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              Posted 09 January 2015 - 01:48 PM

              How about I just split the topic? lol

               

              EDIT: Previous FFXIDB discussion split to this thread.


              Edited by Iryoku, 09 January 2015 - 01:53 PM.






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