-
Archives
- February 2020
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- July 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- January 2015
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- November 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- April 2006
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
- January 2004
- December 2003
- November 2003
- October 2003
- July 1996
- June 1996
- May 1996
- April 1996
- March 1996
- February 1996
- October 1995
-
Meta
Category Archives: Dabbler Notebook
Experimenting with Themes
Some of you have likely noticed that I’ve been changing the look and feel of the website. Since I’m still dissatisfied, you can expect the experimentation to continue.
Posted in Dabbler Notebook
Leave a comment
Bureaucratic Whimsy
When I began this journal, my main purpose was to document the things I did for a living. I wrote these work-triggered essays so for about a year, then stopped. A few months later, as I moved the site to a new server, I removed most of the work-related pages, leaving only a handful of job-related pages which didn’t directly touch on my job. I always planned to recover and repost the removed pages at some future date, and have now done so. They can be found in the site’s Bureaucratic Whimsy category. A few have minor edits, and I’ve added an occasional explanatory note. Please be aware that all names (except mine) have been changed, though in most cases the identity will be obvious to folks who worked with me.
Posted in Bureaucratic Whimsy, Dabbler Notebook
Leave a comment
Dabbler Migration
That recovery could have been automated, but I chose to review the individual postings. While there’s some pain in this recovery method, it gave me the opportunity to reread everything, rework a few entries, and check the links on the recovered postings. While I don’t regret the effort, I’m pleased to have the little sub-project complete. Now I can make time for more obviously-interesting activities.
Posted in Dabbler Notebook
Leave a comment
WP Themes: Lessons from Gangway
Within the past week I’ve called LightCMS “well-crafted” (Sreejith is a code artist), Cutline “workmanlike” (Chris Peterson’s a problem solver), and ModernPaper “delightful” (Brian Gardner’s unusually disciplined). Although they’re very different in detail, all use the same basic CSS vocabulary for describing the document. Since I don’t follow the CSS discussions, I don’t know what standards someone’s trying to enforce, but I’ve read enough code in my life to have preferences. CSS is a rather spare coding language, but you don’t need to look at many stylesheets to learn that there are a variety of coding practices (normally I’d call these “styles,” but that would be confusing), and that some of those practices are more readable than others. Gangway’s style sheet fails the readability test.
WP Themes: Lessons from ModernPaper
Behind the scenes, there’s a slight surprise; Gardner’s used the Home.php page the way most theme designers use Index.php, and Gardner’s Index.php is used like most designers use Single.php. (That realization sent me to the Template Hierarchy, where I convinced myself that the design decision makes sense, though it’s unconventional.) Opening the files to examine the code is delightful: Gardner writes clean, compact, and obvious code, uses XHTML tags as they’re intended, and organizes things well. Needless to say, his CSS files are similarly impressive.
WP Themes: Lessons from Cutline
Cutline is beautiful, but it’s not the answer I’m looking for. Your mileage may well vary, because this is a very attractive theme; unfortunately, it runs up against some of my strong preferences.
WP Themes: Lessons from LightCMS
The big danger with templating languages, whatever the environment, is the temptation to build something really complicated. LightCMS avoids this. The great strength of this theme is its simplicity: There are just a handful of template files, and a simple CSS template controls the screen layout by doing really obvious things in a delightful, well-organized fashion. Understanding this one’s simple; it’s a good place to begin exploring WordPress, and could well be a useful skeleton for building something more elaborate. I might return to this one when I’m ready to implement my final design.
Moving Dabbler to WordPress
Joan says: “Whatcha been doing all night?”
“Moving Dabbler’s Journal,” I replied.
“So you’re going to start writing again?”
I’ve done this before….
Examining Dabbler
Now cycle back to the top of the page and remind yourself that the essays about work are the reason for the website. I’ve quite certain that these readership levels don’t justify the effort and the risk those essays entail. While I could address this in a number of ways, I’ve decided to reclaim the time and put it into another activity.
Posted in Bureaucratic Whimsy, Dabbler Notebook
Leave a comment
Visited by Visions
If there’s any one thing yesterday’s note demonstrates, it’s that Bureaucratic Whimsy is not a traffic magnet. None of the most popular pages on the site are about my job, and none of the common searches find those pages. That’s an issue I expect to discuss next week.
Posted in Dabbler Notebook
Leave a comment