Hi,
oh, well Ive been working on it since about March quite intensively. Right now I am in the very last stage where some people have already got a first version, which they are testing. I had entrance exams for PhD last week, which meant I had to study the last couple of months and in addition a full-time and part-time job, so it took slightly longer than I expected, but hopefully, right now I am finally getting close to the first release.
I will send you a link to a video of what it will look like, but… that video is from April and since then I added many new features, so take that as more like just to get an idea of what it will do and how it will look like.
With regards to whether it will be USA user friendly, Im not 100% sure I understand what you mean. Basically it will work like this - you will download a “basic” version. This version will contain the core template files and a few general sections - the main one will be the one concentrated on the display of weather station data (statistics, graphs, tables etc.). Then a few more, one script for forecasts, one for METARs, one for climate, then a few astronomy-related (sunrise/sunset, moon phase, daylength etc.), some general pages (contact, about station, links etc.).
And then, there will be the possibility to download new stuff. I called this “plugins”. So you will have a list of these plugins, where you will simply choose the ones you want and in a matter of a few seconds, download it and the actual install process is a matter of 5s too, because these will be specifically made for this template and will require no coding or anything. And these plugins will contain more specific scripts. My plan is that after I release the core template, I will continue developing this and release new and new stuff… I already have a to do list where I currently have more than 80 different scripts I want to add so this will be a never ending work in progress Of course I will also be updating and further developing the already existing ones. At the beginning there will already be a few plugins available, for example a page for displaying radar images with the possibility to start it as animation etc. and this I have in several versions - one for the US, one for Europe, one for Australia… so you can then choose which one you want or you can even install all of them. Otherwise, there is of course the possibility of changing not just the design, font etc with a single command, but also possibility to choose any units you like and also language. There is one single configuration file you have to set up, where you simply write for example “F” instead of “C” and everything will be in degrees F etc.
This will then all depend on how users like it. If they like it at all and if so, what are the most demanded things. That will then set the priority in which I will be adding stuff.
Im now also working on a webpage, the actual webpage of the template, this page will have several sections - the homepage with general info, a download section, a wiki (i.e. the documentation with install instructions etc.), plugins page (a page where you will be able to download the plugins, with their description, a demo etc.) and a blog page, where I will be posting about what is new after I release it.
As you can see, I have relatively big plans And since I am first of all not a programmer, second I started learning it 2yrs ago and just do it during nights and third, have 2 other jobs and school, it does take a bit of time. Currently my guess is it will be ready within about 2-3 weeks maximum though. There is just several bugs I still need to fix and I also have to finish the documentation and finish the actual design and content of the template page.
Here are some links to a video with an example of what it looked like in April (just general idea because I added lot of new stuff, but the overall concept stays the same):