56 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
56 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
---
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layout: post
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title: "A Blog That's Not A Blog"
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date: 2013-11-20 11:00:00
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category: News
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permalink: /blog/2013/11/20/
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---
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As you may have noticed (or not), the [JSMachines](http://jsmachines.net/) website had a very modest makeover
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recently.
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Originally, the site was a smattering of HTML files, along with some XML files that I was rendering as HTML
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using some simple XSL stylesheets. However, I was tired of having one set of files for the website to explain
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things and a different set of files on [GitHub](http://github.com) that explained other things -- many
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of those things being the SAME things.
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So this month, I decided to eliminate all the HTML files. As you browse the site, you're simply navigating
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folders from the **GitHub** project and reading the project's **README.md** files.
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There's a single PHP script responsible for transforming a folder's default document (either **README.md**
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or **machine.xml**) to HTML, as well as displaying the current directory across the top and a directory listing
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down the left-hand side.
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The same script provides support for a subset of the [Markdown](http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/)
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syntax, which is more than sufficient to handle all the site's **README.md** files. I probably should
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have used a third-party Markdown library, but this was more educational, and it was easy to add extra features,
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like the ability to embed JavaScript machines with a single Markdown-style link; eg:
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[IBM PC](/devices/pcx86/machine/5150/mda/64kb/ "PCjs:ibm5150")
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The script takes care of the rest, adding the appropriate stylesheets and PCjs scripts automatically.
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I had more grandiose plans, including a command-line prompt written in JavaScript that would allow you to
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navigate the site exactly as you would an IBM PC hard drive from a "DOS prompt", and I may try something
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like that later, but don't hold your breath.
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I've tried to improve the organization of all the [Machine Configuration Files](/devices/pcx86/machine/) as well.
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The variety of configurations was getting out of hand. It's a bit tidier now, but there's still room for
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improvement.
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My workflow is improving, too. I'm more comfortable with [GitHub](http://github.com) now,
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and I recently switched from Eclipse to JetBrains' [WebStorm](http://www.jetbrains.com/webstorm) (well,
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actually [PhpStorm](http://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm), since it's a superset of WebStorm, although I did start
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with WebStorm), and the new development environment is feeling pretty good now. I've had zero problems with
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[JetBrains](http://www.jetbrains.com) products and I'm seriously impressed with their quality and completeness,
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so I have no qualms about moving from the "free" Eclipse platform to the $99 PhpStorm IDE.
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The nice thing about the new GitHub-centric approach is that it's easy to "push" changes to both the repository
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and the website. I update one or more **README.md** files, "Commit and Push" from the IDE, then "pull" from GitHub
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on the web server.
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This so-called blog is more of the same: **README.md** files in a series of folders. The only question now:
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will this actually evolve into a series...?
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*[@jeffpar](http://twitter.com/jeffpar)*
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*November 20, 2013*
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