It's been a while since I've been so thoroughly intrigued by sight-unseen software that I've had to fight a death-match with the urge to play hookey from my "To Do" list. My office-mate from a previous job pinged me (and others) today to ask for help testing the installation of a PHP/MySQL source control package and build tool he's created.
Both species of tools are good things--very few professional programmers would argue that. The deal-breaker, though, is that most of them have to be installed on (as opposed to just copied to) a server, preferably an off-site server (or one whose data is backed up offsite). Your typical Tucows/GoDaddy/Dreamhost-type web hosting company--quite understandably--does not respond well to Jane Customer asking them to install any old software on servers used by hundreds, if not thousands of customers.
However, the Zend PHP engine and MySQL databases typically come standard with any hosting package, which is what could make this concept a game-changer for the folks who don't do quite enough moonlighting to justify anything beyond McHosting. If it means source control with more discipline than Dropbox and fewer build steps than home-brew script files, that raises the bar for everyone--never a bad thing.
Again, I haven't done so much as download the software yet, but I'm quite excited by the concept. So, if you'll excuse me, I need to sneak in a little time for what I'm supposed to be doing, so I can play with the new toy and hopefully give my old "roomie" a little QA feedback in the process.
