Name: Alfie Parthum

I. Title of Project
	Tragtool: the Trendy Tag Tool

II. Problem statement
	Some people on the Internet feel obligated to share their associations.  
	This can be as well orchestrated as a Web Page or an animation made with
	Macromedia(R) Flash(R). However, some forms are formulaic, like so-called 
	YTMND's, which boil an idea (often an Internet pop-culture reference) down
	to a picture, a sound clip, and a short	phrase.  One of these forms is the
	forum signature tag, in which a user can express an ideal, such as that she
	uses links exclusively as her browser, or that he owns a Porsche.

III. Purpose
	The purpose of this project is to create a program that will, through
	existing Internet infrastructure, generate a stylish forum signature tag
	dynamically.

	The reason this would be a viable problem with a solution is the fact that
	most people who are able to obtain such a tag either have to make it
	manually using a general-purpose program that edits pictures such as
	Adobe(R) Photoshop(R), or get it from someone else who has the skill.  The
	program this project would entail would generate such a tag using 
	programming languages designed for the World Wide Web and configuration
	options, allowing for such possibilities as tags created with minimal
	effort all the way up to animated tags with multiple messages and up-to-
	the-moment statistics.

	The applications wouldn't have to end at just forum signatures.  The 
	graphic produced could be used in a variety of technologies, most
	probably useful for content designation on web pages, such as title bars
	for Intraboxes in the Intranet2 infrastructure.

IV. Scope of Study
	The initial time investment is minimal.  The beauty of the project is that
	it has infinite potential within its realm, but only needs a few initial
	functions to get started.  After that, it's possible to add on a plethora
	of functions while building off of a small base.

V. Background and review of current literature/research
	The specification that this project will initially attempt to meet is
	described in a tutorial at:
	http://forums.meteorwebdesign.com/index.php?showtopic=6656

	The implementation will be achieved using the language PHP along with
	currently available image technologies for that language.  This allows for
	dynamically generated tags as well as the extensibility.  Examples include
	infamous IP displaying images such as are found at:
	http://dynamic.tjtech.org/ (demonstration broken)
	http://www.danasoft.com/ (explanation of technology missing)
	
	Another tool that manipulates images using PHP is the tastelessly named
	but deliciously useful FEIDIAN ( http://feidian.sourceforge.net/ ).  It 
	merely extracts data, interprets it the way the user chooses, and spits out
	an image accordingly.  This is very useful when trying to extract graphics
	from binary programs without taking screenshots, or getting a font out of a
	game.  Its simplicity also means that it hasn't had to be updated for over
	a year, a completeness this project aims for as well.

VI. Procedure and Methodology
	A list of features needed in the program follows, in order of approximate
	relative importance:
	- Pretty :)"Aesthetic value"
	- Interface is controlled through a simple scripting language
	- Support for common image file formats such as GIF, JPEG (?), PNG, and MNG
	- Able to resize internal images to fit the final image
	- Create text
	- Scalable output through filters such as Scale2x 
		( http://scale2x.sf.net ) and hq3x ( http://www.hiend3d.com/hq3x.html )
	- Animation-capable

VII. Expected Results and Value to Others
	I expect for this project at the very least to fulfill my personal 
	enjoyment: I'll never have to work hard to get a good forum signature
	again.  I hope that others will enjoy the fruits of my labor at the end,
	although it could get potentially annoying if it turns into a fad and gets
	out of hand.  

	The results and analyses will be difficult to present in any other way than
	comparing input to output.  The results themselves will be the useful
	aspect of the project.  I think the contributions to future research would
	manifest themselves through the final product as well.  I think that 
	it could prove useful for someone who needs a look for a CMS (Content 
	Management System) theme, or for a simplistic GUI.

	The individual tasks will come along as they are made up, but the first
	thing that will start off the project is a preliminary specification for
	the scripting language, and then a prototype based off that specification.
	Therefore, the time frame is scalable.  There are enough features planned,
	however, that the project can feasibly take a reasonably long time to
	develop.  The planning and tracking of work will be updated on the techlab
	site ( http://www.tjhsst.edu/~aparthum/techlab/ ), as well as through an
	source repository (probably Mercurial).