I have been meaning to upgrade my Blog for quite some time now; and I have finally done so. I switched from my own code to a WordPress blog framework. After some time playing with themes, CSS, and source files, I got it looking almost like the old version. To be honest, I’m not even sure how one could get around anything past the basic features without at least a rudimentary knowledge of CSS.
So, in memoriam, here is the previous version’s screenshot:
Not much of a visual difference! The real upgrade lies in the back-end features that I really want — categories, tags, proper comment system, administration panel, media, RSS, etc. I could make a long, detailed list of why a ready-made approach is better than building this myself; but I’ll just say the benefits far outweight the few downsides. This may be obvious to most, but I have always notoriously done things myself — from ground-up, without using existing templates or frameworks. I have re-invented so many metaphorical wheels, I’m a borderline programming masochist.
I have considered posting Development Diary entries less frequently, instead making them higher quality — better writing, clearer details, informative graphics. But I decided against it, and instead split the blog into “Blog” and “DevDiary”. You see, I rarely proof-read or change anything in the DevDiary; as I often type it last thing before being done for the day. In contrast, I want to have a different approach to the “main” Blog, and post coherent, decently written entries over several days on thoughts and topics not necessarily relevant to my game.