PINNED: Contributing to the Future of BeerSmith

[BeerSmith]

I know there are many other programmers and designers out there who (like me) enjoy the hobby and would like to contribute in some small way.

While I can't offer much in the way of compensation, I'm happy to highlight the contributions of others and offer to host your work for the good of the larger group.

Examples:
- Recipes (we can always use more!)
- Additional data (manufacturer specific grain listings, missing ingredients, local style guides, equipment setups, etc...)
- Report templates
- Beta testing
- BeerXML style sheets, DTD, and converters to convert other beer program files to BeerSmith (yes it is possible!)

Please contact me before you start as I would like to deconflict any ongoing efforts, and also provide some broad guidelines (for example data naming conventions) to help you in your efforts.

Whatever you contribute will be placed in the public domain for free download from our web site and possibly included in future versions of BeerSmith (if appropriate).

 In the case of exceptional contributions, I may be able to donate a free copy of BeerSmith or a T-shirt to the cause!

Thanks!
Brad

[bonjour]

Brad,

Is anyone working on Briess Malts?

Fred

[BeerSmith]

Fred,
 Not that I know of, but I did use many of the Briess profiles to build the original "generic" malt database, so it would be pretty easy to use the generic one as a starting point.

 Let me know if you are interested via email - I can provide some naming guidelines and links.

Cheers!
Brad

[bassbrnr]

I'm willing to help out.  I'm a programmer so I can handle anything you need.

I noticed a request to update the BA Beer Style guide.  Has that been handled yet?

[BeerSmith]

Hi,
  Thanks for the offer - if you wish to enter the BA style guide, that would be a great contribution!  BeerSmith already supports multiple style guides, so it would just be a matter of entering the new one.

  Let me know or drop me an email.

Cheers!
Brad

[jab688]

when i was a young lad, and a life guard we use to dabble with the water chemistry or be fired hehe. how about a addition to the water profiles to add something to take away something. i mention this to bring attention to my post of the Munich water from distilled water. kinda close in most categories but need to be able to remove excess from others.
  i have no fear for i know the good folks at bier smith are just about to release this update hehe. no pressure brad. 

[t2000kw]

I'd be interested in beta testing the product, especially if you have a script to follow to test new features out. I'm an all grain brewer but also do extract with grains from time to time.

I am not a programmer, but I've beta tested (in the development cycle, before public betas) for various software products from Microsoft, PKWare, PCTools, Norton, and others.

In addition to Windows Vista (soon will have Win 7 on two PCs here), I also use Ubuntu Linux and could test it under Crossover Office (an improved version of Wine), which I also serve as an advocate (for Forte agent email/newsreader) and beta tester for the Crossover product.

[BeerSmith]

Thanks!
  I don't have a beta version ready yet, but I will post an announcement here once the beta version is ready for early testing.

Brad

[rkausch]

Hey Brad,

I'm new to BS (and still getting used to the new use of that acronym!), and would love to help out.  I'm a professional software engineer, with tons of good experience (Java, C#, C++, XML (XSLT, XSD, etc), HTML, GUI Development, Performance Tuning, and lots of other good stuff).  If there's anything I can help out with, I'd be happy to contribute!

Sadly, my brewing knowledge is not quite where I'd like it to be, so I'd probably shy away from anything requiring hardcore brewing knowledge (for now at least!).

Let me know if I can help!
Rob

[raymcgill]

Hi, Brad!
I am not a programmer, but still a computer geek. Suggestion: We make a guide to the templating of your software, i.e. how to modify the templates, which files to modify, and a guide on how to update the files such as brewing instructions. I was adding some reminders for my process, but haven't found any clarity on best practices. Maybe a wiki or something.

[raymcgill]

Suggestions:
1. Field of brewhouse/system efficiency calculated from known variables. It would be good to have on brew report.
2. Ability to select dates (calendar picker) for date of start/finish of steps like primary and secondary. I guess a prerequisite of this is the fields for these values.


Let me know if I missed this in the software...

[BeerSmith]

Hi,
  The first one you suggested is available - click on the "Brewhouse Efficiency" button near the top while you are in any open recipe and it can calculate the actual efficiencies for you.

Brad

[Aprendiz de Cervecero]

Buenas tardes a todos, soy nuevo en el foro, quisiera saber si están pensando en insertar en la nueva versión, la traducción al español del programa, estaría interesado en comprarlo si hay una versión traducida, ¿cuando podemos disponer de ella?.

Saludos para todos!!! 

Jorge Herrera
Aprendiz de Cervecero

[codejnki]

Brad,

I am willing to participate as a beta-tester.

I also have C#, ASP.NET, and lots of SQL experience and would be willing to help out development wise.

Have you given any thoughts of utilizing a SQL engine for the data?  It might help solve the issue of when to save data and corrupted files.

[beanlax]

Hi Brad,
I have recently gotten into brewing, but I have been a software engineer many years. I would love to help with BeerSmith in anyway I can. I am currently working with JAVA (J2EE), JavaScript, and Oracle. I have recenlty been picking up PHP, MySql, and Python on the side. I have experience with C/C++ as well. Let me know if you need a hand adding new features or Alpha/Beta testing.

Ben