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Initial commit (a clone of the jsmachines project as of v1.15.3)

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jeffpar 2014-09-27 14:52:57 -07:00
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A Blog That's Not A Blog
---
As you may have noticed (or not), the [JSMachines](http://jsmachines.net/) website had a very modest makeover
recently.
Originally, the site was a smattering of HTML files, along with some XML files that I was rendering as HTML
using some simple XSL stylesheets. However, I was tired of having one set of files for the website to explain
things and a different set of files on [GitHub](http://github.com) that explained other things -- many
of those things being the SAME things.
So this month, I decided to eliminate all the HTML files. As you browse the site, you're simply navigating
folders from the **GitHub** project and reading the project's **README.md** files.
There's a single PHP script responsible for transforming a folder's default document (either **README.md**
or **machine.xml**) to HTML, as well as displaying the current directory across the top and a directory listing
down the left-hand side.
The same script provides support for a subset of the [Markdown](http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/)
syntax, which is more than sufficient to handle all the site's **README.md** files. I probably should
have used a third-party Markdown library, but this was more educational, and it was easy to add extra features,
like the ability to embed JavaScript machines with a single Markdown-style link; eg:
[IBM PC](/configs/pc/machines/5150/mda/64kb/ "PCjs:ibm5150")
The script takes care of the rest, adding the appropriate stylesheets and PCjs scripts automatically.
I had more grandiose plans, including a command-line prompt written in JavaScript that would allow you to
navigate the site exactly as you would an IBM PC hard drive from a "DOS prompt", and I may try something
like that later, but don't hold your breath.
I've tried to improve the organization of all the [Machine Configuration Files](/configs/pc/machines/) as well.
The variety of configurations was getting out of hand. It's a bit tidier now, but there's still room for
improvement.
My workflow is improving, too. I'm more comfortable with [GitHub](http://github.com) now,
and I recently switched from Eclipse to JetBrains' [WebStorm](http://www.jetbrains.com/webstorm) (well,
actually [PhpStorm](http://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm), since it's a superset of WebStorm, although I did start
with WebStorm), and the new development environment is feeling pretty good now. I've had zero problems with
[JetBrains](http://www.jetbrains.com) products and I'm seriously impressed with their quality and completeness,
so I have no qualms about moving from the "free" Eclipse platform to the $99 PhpStorm IDE.
The nice thing about the new GitHub-centric approach is that it's easy to "push" changes to both the repository
and the website. I update one or more **README.md** files, "Commit and Push" from the IDE, then "pull" from GitHub
on the web server.
This so-called blog is more of the same: **README.md** files in a series of folders. The only question now:
will this actually evolve into a series...?
*[@jeffpar](http://twitter.com/jeffpar)*
*November 20, 2013*