Down In Back
Most dynamic pages at this site are served by Drupal 4.x. I evaluated and played with configuring a bunch of open-source CMS systems and picked Drupal because it was the one that seemed to have the cleanest code and the smartest developers.
Drupal is a bit difficult to configure for usability, though; it's got some nifty usability and information design features like baked-in taxonomy navigation and branch-level syndication feeds, but the documentation on new modules sometimes leaves a bit to be desired. Not recommended for people who aren't comfortable adding table columns to their MySQL dBs.
I've basically recreated most of the functionality that I had on my old Radio-driven blog, which has been ported and redirected over here from Antikoan.com. When I've got the time, between working and actually trying to have a personal life and develop a web consulting business on the side to tide me over when I decide I can't handle my job anymore [...INHALE...], I plan to implement a few new features. See below.
Up In Front
As always, this site is coded with frank disregard for validation or standards. I code what works to get the results I want, and I don't apologize for that. When it stops working, I'll stop coding it that way.
I also don't pay any attention to those much-too-detail-oriented types who draw distinctions between different types of dash. I don't have time for that crap. The content is what's important; typographic niceties like the difference between an em and an en dash are irrelevant to English grammar and style.
Yes, this site uses tables for layout. No, I don't like that. Yes, I'd like to do away with them. But I'd also like people to be able to read this site without having to spend many many hours tweaking a cross-browser three-column layout that could be made to work with a CMS. Not that I don't love tweaking Drupal themes, but I do try to have a life. Even if that just means reading a book now and then.
Up And Coming
Short term:
- A major user interaction overhaul.
- Theme redesign. (Lost the old theme during the 4.4 to 4.5.1 update.)
- Restore node-level syndication feeds and notifications. (Lost during the 4.4 to 4.5.1 update.)
- Addition of "sidebar" capability, image link tool, related links feature.
Longer term:
- Thinking about shifting my personal calendar here from Yahoo.
- Similarly, thinking of implementing a bookmark storage and personal news summary page -- but then, you might not ever see those things....
- Planning to add some kind of facility for single-story export to another Drupal site.
