So, it's been about two weeks since I updated the site-software, so I'm going to take a moment to thoroughly elaborate on why I did.
The Original Site
The old site had many issues that start to gather up more and more until I Finlay became too lazy, busy, and tired to do all the tasks that it took to make a single post.
Previously, in order to make a post, I had to:
- Write up the post
- Reformat it to HTML
- Ensure that all of the css, javascript, and links were connected correctly
- Repeat the whole process in a template.
- Make a new spot in the forums
- Link the index and other pages back to the new post
So I then thought to myself, "hey Siraf, why don't you write your own scripting program to do this?" And spent the next three months without updating the site and realizing that this is a far more daunting task than I originally intended. When asking for advice, I found that most people recommended I simply use a pre-built Content Management System (CMS).
Choices
But which one to use? After a bit of research, I narrowed it down to three choices:
Drupal was too complicated to install with my web host, and was impossible without the adjustment of a couple shell scripts, so it was counted out.
Wordpress is an open-source blogging tool and although Wordpress was recommended by my host, I found it to be a bit too intensive in SQL queries and scaling. It would have been a bit slower.
Movable type's use of perl in their cgi ensured that I could have a faster site and still maintain the core features of a CMS-based site.
In Sum
The issues I ran into Movable type installation were mostly a result of the plesk-based system and a lack of understanding of where the root of the site was located. This was quickly resolved with some google searching. I'm planning on writing up a bit more on how I managed this in a later post.
Until then, cheers!
