I guess that ActiveState really wants developers to build extensions for Komodo IDE 4.0 and Komodo Edit 4.0. They recently set me this press release: ActiveState Software Inc., the leading provider of development tools and services for dynamic languages, today announced the Komodo 4.0 Extensibility Challenge. The contest challenges developers using Komodo IDE 4.0 or Komodo Edit 4.0 to create macros, templates, s I guess that ActiveState really wants developers to build extensions for Komodo IDE 4.0 and Komodo Edit 4.0. They recently set me this press release: ActiveState Software Inc., the leading provider of development tools and services for dynamic languages, today announced the Komodo 4.0 Extensibility Challenge. The contest challenges developers using Komodo IDE 4.0 or Komodo Edit 4.0 to create macros, templates, snippets, run commands or XPI extensions for Komodo’s open architecture, with $1000 in prizes to the winning entries. Komodo added extensibility to its feature set with Komodo IDE 4.0, the first unified workspace for end-to-end development of dynamic web applications, released in January; Komodo Edit 4.0, a free multi-language editor for dynamic languages based on the award-winning Komodo IDE, was released earlier this month. Contest entrants can submit their work in the Komodo XPI Extension category or the Komodo Other Extensibility category (or both) on the Komodo Community website, at https://support.activestate.com/products/Komodo. The contest entry deadline is April 1, 2007. A shortlist of finalists will be chosen from all entries based on code quality, user interface quality, usefulness, and ‘coolness’ factor. The winners will be chosen via online voting by the Komodo Community beginning Tuesday, April 10, 2007. Voting closes Tuesday, May 8, 2007. The winners will be announced at RailsConf 2007 in Portland, Oregon. The winning entry in the Komodo XPI Extension category will win an Apple Nano. The winning entry in the Komodo Other Extensibility category will win a $150 iTunes gift card. There are secondary prizes of iTunes gift cards to be won as well. The Komodo Community site is hosting user forums and FAQs for the contest, as well as resources for creating and sharing extensions, at https://support.activestate.com. Read the official contest rules athttps://support.activestate.com/forum-topic/komodo-extensibility-chal.Unless Apple has introduced some products I haven’t heard about, ActiveState means that the prize for the winning XPI extension will be an iPod Nano; they don’t specify which model. I suppose an iPod Nano as a prize makes sense for a contest in which ‘coolness’ is one of the judging criteria. Years ago, I was one of the judges for a DHTML contest sponsored by Windows Magazine, Wrox Publishing, and Microsoft. There were some cool entries, but I can’t recall anything that was actually useful. There were also entries of appalling badness, entries that cried out for a Simon Cowell to send their “pitchy” authors away in tears and disgrace. It was an daunting amount of work to set up the criteria and the entry site and do the judging; I wouldn’t ever want to undertake organizing or judging such a contest again. Good luck with that, ActiveState. Software Development