Deck-u-lator history

Deck-u-lator is over eighteen years old.  Here is a look back to how it has evolved.

2001 Implair Perl CGI web application

Deck-u-lator launched in December 2001 when I was part of The Implair Group with Barry Reich.  The original calculator was implemented in Perl as a CGI script on the implair.com server.  Many of us at The Implair Group were Magic play testers.  I loved designing intricate combinations and became curious about how often I could actually draw them.

2010 Django on Google App Engine

After The Implair Group servers shut down, I moved the calculator to Google App Engine in November 2010.  This was a port to the Python 2.5 language and used Django web framework.  Since this time, the source code has been managed in the Git version control system.  Deck-u-lator changed to a single-page app generating graphs from Google charts.  This blog was started to provide documentation.  A REST API was described on the blog when this version launched.

2012 Upgrades

Deck-u-lator upgraded to Python 2.7 for the new Google High Replication Datastore and a new template engine, Jinja2.

2019 Advanced calculator for mobile

This winter I finally set aside time to add more advanced features to the calculator to cover alternate hands and maximum limits for cards in hands.  The user interface moved to a Bootstrap template for responsive display on smaller screens.  Formulas were added and the graph moved to the latest Google charts.

Thank you

Deck-u-lator is a passion project for me and I enjoy hearing from you about what you are doing with this calculator.  Who knows, your article or email may inspire changes for the next version.