I just added a static frontpage to GlowingFaceMan. This is something I've been meaning to do for a very long time, and I'm very happy to have finally gotten around to it. Check out the new frontpage at Glowing Face Man. It was a very challenging project and I would never have been able to pull it off when I first started writing here. Thus, this really shows how much I've progressed as a blogger. In fact, once I sat down and took that first step, it only actually took me a few hours of right action. Again, though, if I'd tried this when I first started, I'd've been miles over my head.
The Technical Difficulties
At this time, GFM is hosted through blogspot's free blog-hosting service. This is great if you want to follow the usual blogspot formula, which is: "index page is a big dynamic list of recent articles." There's absolutely no accomodation here for a static homepage. However, I am able to edit the template to my heart's content. The GFM template is a giant XHTML document crammed full of undocumented Google code. I had to figure out what everything meant through tons of trial and error experimentation on a sandbox blog. When I publish a new article, blogspot feeds values into various variables in this file, and generates the HTML which my readers actually download. I have no control over what goes into the variables, nor can I easily add new ones, so I have to work entirely with what I'm given. I like that sort of problem, it forces me to really think on my toes :)
Of course, this would all have been trivial with JavaScript, but some people can't see JavaScript, so I'd be utterly screwing up my front page for a small but significant pool of readers.
Suffice it to say, in order to get a static frontpage, I had to make some major surgical changes to a messy uncommented XHTML file. I feel really good now, huge sense of accomplishment :)
The Creative Difficulties
As you know, I write lots of high-quality articles on a wide range of topics. This is not some "all (insert narrow topic) all the time" website ;) I had a lot of trouble tying everything together into one overarching description. But I'm happy with what I came up with.
When I first began GFM a couple years back, I was not being sincere or open with my readers at all. It's embarassing looking back at my oldest posts, but at least it shows me how much I've grown since then! Anyway, if I were still faking that old persona I started writing under, it would've been a lot harder to make good content for the frontpage.
The Freeing Effect
I feel like this change is going to give me more freedom to write about what I want when I want. This is kind of silly and I'm even a little sheepish to admit it, but when I thought about what article to write next, one of the things that always crept into my mind was, "Do I want that to be a reader's first impression of me??" I knew that, rationally, this was a stupid thing to worry about, but emotionally I couldn't remove that nagging voice...
Expect More Updates Soon
In the course of implementing this change today, I had the final breakthrough which suddenly let me understand what the heck is going on in the blogger templates. It all hinges on this "b:includable" command. Once I realized what that was doing, it suddenly all made sense, and I laughed that I hadn't figured it out long ago. Anyway, the point is, I suddenly feel like I gained ten levels on the technical side of blogging overnight, so you can expect some cool updates to the blog in the near future :)
FURTHER READING
The article-writing process has greatly increased my intelligence since I started it. Read: Increase Your Intelligence By Doing New Things.
Share the adventure of learning a programming language with me: Teaching Myself JavaScript.
Here's a time-management article which uses computer programming as a source of analogies for scheduling projects. Defragmentation For Your Life.
The Technical Difficulties
At this time, GFM is hosted through blogspot's free blog-hosting service. This is great if you want to follow the usual blogspot formula, which is: "index page is a big dynamic list of recent articles." There's absolutely no accomodation here for a static homepage. However, I am able to edit the template to my heart's content. The GFM template is a giant XHTML document crammed full of undocumented Google code. I had to figure out what everything meant through tons of trial and error experimentation on a sandbox blog. When I publish a new article, blogspot feeds values into various variables in this file, and generates the HTML which my readers actually download. I have no control over what goes into the variables, nor can I easily add new ones, so I have to work entirely with what I'm given. I like that sort of problem, it forces me to really think on my toes :)
Of course, this would all have been trivial with JavaScript, but some people can't see JavaScript, so I'd be utterly screwing up my front page for a small but significant pool of readers.
Suffice it to say, in order to get a static frontpage, I had to make some major surgical changes to a messy uncommented XHTML file. I feel really good now, huge sense of accomplishment :)
The Creative Difficulties
As you know, I write lots of high-quality articles on a wide range of topics. This is not some "all (insert narrow topic) all the time" website ;) I had a lot of trouble tying everything together into one overarching description. But I'm happy with what I came up with.
When I first began GFM a couple years back, I was not being sincere or open with my readers at all. It's embarassing looking back at my oldest posts, but at least it shows me how much I've grown since then! Anyway, if I were still faking that old persona I started writing under, it would've been a lot harder to make good content for the frontpage.
The Freeing Effect
I feel like this change is going to give me more freedom to write about what I want when I want. This is kind of silly and I'm even a little sheepish to admit it, but when I thought about what article to write next, one of the things that always crept into my mind was, "Do I want that to be a reader's first impression of me??" I knew that, rationally, this was a stupid thing to worry about, but emotionally I couldn't remove that nagging voice...
Expect More Updates Soon
In the course of implementing this change today, I had the final breakthrough which suddenly let me understand what the heck is going on in the blogger templates. It all hinges on this "b:includable" command. Once I realized what that was doing, it suddenly all made sense, and I laughed that I hadn't figured it out long ago. Anyway, the point is, I suddenly feel like I gained ten levels on the technical side of blogging overnight, so you can expect some cool updates to the blog in the near future :)
FURTHER READING
The article-writing process has greatly increased my intelligence since I started it. Read: Increase Your Intelligence By Doing New Things.
Share the adventure of learning a programming language with me: Teaching Myself JavaScript.
Here's a time-management article which uses computer programming as a source of analogies for scheduling projects. Defragmentation For Your Life.
Posts
1 comments:
Just a niggling thing for me on the left hand side the "best of GFM" column seems a little distracting when trying to read the centre column.
Perhaps something to brake up the text a little or maybe a different colour etc? as it seems a bit confusing on the eyes for me.
Post a Comment