NAME
    README - Slash Readme

WARNING
    This release of Slash is BETA software. Run at your own risk. There ARE
    bugs, there ARE broken and incomplete features, and documentation is not
    yet finished or wrong. For a production-quality release of Slash, see
    http://slashcode.com/.

DESCRIPTION
    Slash -- Slashdot Like Automated Storytelling Homepage -- is the code
    that runs Slashdot. More than that, however, Slash is an architecture
    for putting together web sites. It comes with functionality for posting
    articles, conducting polls, having discussions, and more. But it can be
    extended in innumerable ways.

    Slash is written in Perl, and is built on top of Apache and mod_perl. It
    requires a database backend, though the only well-supported database
    used with it is MySQL (more databases will become well-supported as time
    goes on; PostgreSQL support is already well on its way). Slash is fast,
    scalable, and secure (as evidenced by one of the best test cases you
    could have, running Slashdot itself).

    Through a plugin system, developers can add functionality to Slash.
    Through themes and templates (which are written using Template Toolkit),
    the look and feel of a Slash site can be customized.

    See INSTALL for information about installing Slash, including hardware
    and software requirements. Read that document carefully, and follow the
    instructions as precisely as possible.

    There is no upgrade information yet; we will write information on
    upgrading from a 1.0.x site soon.

DOCUMENTATION
    Slash FAQ
        Basic information about Slash, how to contact the developers, and a
        lot more.

        http://slashcode.com/faq.shtml

    Template Toolkit
        For more information on how to write templates, see the Template
        Toolkit site.

        http://www.template-toolkit.org/

    RSS For more information on RSS 1.0, and the RSS Slash module.

        http://purl.org/rss/1.0/
        http://www.egroups.com/files/rss-dev/Modules/Proposed/mod_slash.html

    Installation
        The details on how to install Slash.

        INSTALL

        (We should post this online, too.)

    API The details of the API available in Slash.

                perldoc Slash
                perldoc Slash::Utility
                perldoc Slash::Display
                perldoc Slash::DB

        (We should post these online, too.)

    Other
        We need docs for schema, upgrading. We need to upgrade the Getting
        Started doc. We need to have docs on how to do a plugin or theme.
        Anything else?

    Authors
        The authors and contributors of Slash.

        AUTHORS

LINKS
    Slashdot
        The site that started it all.

        http://slashdot.org/

    Slash
        The main site for Slash.

        http://slashcode.com/

    SourceForge Site
        Access to the code, bug reports, patches, and more.

        http://sourceforge.net/projects/slashcode/

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
    The information below applies to everything in this distribution, except
    where noted.

    Copyright 1997-2001 by Open Source Development Network.

            http://www.osdn.com/

    Slash is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
    the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
    Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
    option) any later version.

    Slash is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
    WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
    FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for
    more details.

    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
    with Slash (COPYING); if not, go to http://www.fsf.org/ or write to the
    Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA
    02111-1307, USA.

VERSION
    $Id$