I have a beta version of my quiz app ready, you can check it out at one of the following links:

• Quiz Guide – Same page shown a few entries ago, except this time the link to the Tcl/Tk quiz works.
• Tcl/Tk Quiz – My first programming quiz for the PK app. I still plan on adding more questions, though I felt it was important to get a beta version out.

Right now all I have ready is a Tcl/Tk quiz. I’m guessing 90% of the people who read this will have no idea what Tcl/Tk is, but it’s a fun little scripting language that pops up in a lot of different places. Even if you aren’t familiar with it, the quiz will give you a feel for what the others will look like. I’ve set things up so that the quizzes themselves are JSON files, and are read in and generated on the fly by a single PHP page. The URL is set up to look like a directory, but it gets rewritten and pointed towards the PHP page (which will currently display the Tcl quiz no matter what, even if the quiz directory isn’t tcl-tk-basics).

The quiz engine is currently set up to track multiple variables, with one variable acting as the “correctness” value to determine if a question is right or wrong. However, using a correctness variable can be turned off. The ability to track more than one variable allows the quiz to track different types of answers and to measure more than one thing. At the end of the quiz you’re presented with a table showing how you did in the various areas the quiz measured. Tracking multiple variables is how I imagine those online-dating site quizzes to work (the ones that will tell you about your personality, etc). I figured I’d keep my app as flexible as possible in case I wanted to do more creative things with it (though I have no plans to get into the online dating site world, I just want a flexible app).

Right now there’s only one type of question (multiple choice), though I hope to add more in the future. You also don’t lose points for incorrect answers. I’m still not sure if I want to add that ability in.

Also, while searching for icons to use in this program I found some pretty good resources, so I figured I’d share them here:

• Developpers Icons by Sekkyumu – 105 free icons that you can do anything with.
• Icon Finder – An icon search engine.

If you have any suggestions for the quiz app please let me know. I don’t think I’ve wasted as much time on any other app fretting about things that people probably wont care about. The app was actually partially re-written a couple times this past month. There’s was an ExtJS version, a version that used HTML tag generation instead of createElement (I’m still not sure what’s best), and lots of stuff I kept taking out and putting back in. However, I figured it was best to post a version up before I got old and gray.