Mokka mit Schlag » Web Development

I guess Microsoft didn’t read this article. Silverlight will run on the Mac but can’t be authored there. This means at least half the people who might think about developing for it won’t be able to.
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On the advice of numerous people I’ve installed WP-Cache here on Mokka mit Schlag. It’s supposed to dramatically speed up performance by caching query responses while still allowing for live comments and editing and all that yummy fired goodness WordPress is famous for. We shall see. If it makes a noticeable difference, I’ll install it on The Cafes too.
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I have written a WordPress plugin to rearrange the buttons in the post editor (the regular one, not the fancy WYSIWYG one) in a way more to my liking. It changes the names of some buttons, removes others I rarely use, and adds a few more I do use.

The code involves some really awful hacks and is a confusing mix of CSS, JavaScript, and PHP. I use CSS to hide the buttons I don’t like, and JavaScript to change the names of existing buttons and add new ones. PHP integrates this whole mess into WordPress. WordPress wasn’t really designed to support this level of customization. That’s why I have to use JavaScript to change the buttons after the page is loaded.
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Had a good time at the WordPress meetup in NYC last night. Finally met Matt Mullenweg and various other people. It was surprisingly reminiscent of the early days of the Web, circa 1995. Most of the user group meetings/meetups/conferences I’ve been going to lately are very heavily weighted toward techies and programmers. This one was a real mixed group of programmers, artists, writers, sysadmins, VCs, and business folks. I haven’t run into a group like that for a while.
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Blog entries written in the first person on multi-author blogs that never say who’s writing them.

I have just submitted the last chapter of the first draft of Refactoring HTML off to my editor. The next couple of months will be occupied with author review, rewriting, tech review, rewriting, copy editing, rewriting, publicity, tool development, indexing, and other tasks. However that’s all much easier and less stressful on my end than the initial move from a blank screen to a completed manuscript.

With a little luck, the finished book should hit store shelves this summer. If anyone would be interested in reviewing part or all of the book, drop me a line; and I’ll see what I can do about getting you an early review copy. I especially need comments from people with experience in refactoring and web site development of any kind. Particular skills we need include regular expressions, mod_rewrite, Flash, CSS, and accessibility. If any of those are your cup of tea, then your help would be greatly appreciated with just a chapter or two, even if you can’t review the whole book.