In this post, I promised to hang in on Movable Type and not move to another tool.
Well, I’ve changed my mind.
Why? Simply because MT is too limiting for me. I edit my posts in Emacs, run them through SmartyPants and Markdown to get nice formatting, then paste the result into MT’s edit window on the site.
When using Windows, this works — kinda. But when I’m at home, I use an old laptop running OpenBSD. Running Firebird on that machine is slooow. So I’ve got this multi-step barrier in front of my text and my weblog.
I’ve been playing with Blosxom on a spare unix server. It’s everything MT isn’t: small, spare, configurable — if you know Perl. Also I like the semi-dynamic notion of timestamp-based sorting. Certain posts, such as my reading list are updated often. Under MT, you can’t see this. If you subscribe to my RSS feed, you can see that the post has been updated, but not otherwise.
Also, it’s insanely fun to be hacking with Blosxom. Turn-around time for site changes are instant, CSS changes are fast — all because I’m working directly in Emacs, not in bog-slow Firebird.
So as soon as I get stuff in order on Symbiandiaries I’m outta MT. They can take their bloated “CMS” and sell it to someone else. I’m sticking with the tools I know and trust.
Posted by gustaf at June 11, 2024 04:56 PM