Sorry for the noobness, but how do you make these scripts? Ive seen loads that people have made, but i just dont know how. What programs, etc do you use. Cheers
In this particular case its a server side script, that appears to be written with php (I say appears because you could add the perl handler to deal with .php files, or anything), which takes the data in from the query string appended to the URL, processes the text from the query string, then using GD (or possibly imagemagick - it depends on the system) it converts the text into an image using some predefined math to position the text properly. The actual work to create an image isnt that tricky, as the GD/imagemacik libraries do all the hard work.
Its all a bit high in the sky, but thats basically how it probably works - if you're truely interested you may wish to pop your head around the programmers section - theres a fair few scripts and what-not available, and we can always poke you in the right direction.
To run PHP you need at least the following:
* A PHP interpreter, with the relevant extensions (such as GD)
* A text editor to write the script
* A browser to use the manual on php.net
Technically a web server isn't required as you can call a php executable with an additional argument of a script - but it means that it won't output via a web page.
Of course there are plenty of other languages that could've been used instead.
thats because i was talkin to MR B as when this thread was first opened me and him did quite a few of these. if you would like to read the first few pages.
EDIT: there you go. my prediction is almost right. just another few weeks and it wil be here next year