I use Python with the Django framework at work, and I enjoy working with them. Django really simplifies development, and has some excellent sites built using it: have a look at Naples News Online and Lawrence.com
So when it came to putting this blog up, the first thought that came to my mind was “Ok, I’ll spend a couple hours putting up something basic with Django, and I can then add to it as I go along.”
Yep, trust my first instinct to be the most lazy time-saving one.
Then I realized that this option was just too easy. Having built an entire CMS with Django recently, I would learn nothing new by doing a simple blog with it.
So I decided this was an excellent chance to learn Ruby and RoR. I’d be killing two birds with one stone: diversifying my knowledge portfolio within the area of web development, and sating my intellectual curiosity as to why Rails has exploded over the past year or so.
Seemed simple enough. Checked out the Pickaxe book from my company library, and got the seminal Rails book too. Went through the tutorial, and subsequently put together a bare-bones blog app (sans a decent template and styling) in around half an hour.
Yes, that’s not a typo. Neither am I exaggerating. Rails is simply that fast. Bear in mind we’re talking bare minimum here—all my app was at that point was a simple wrapper around a BlogEntry model with Title, Body, and CreatedAt fields. But I could perform basic CRUD on it and have the results immediately reflected live. A minimalist blog I suppose. Django would be slightly slower, because it eschews the script/generate “magic” of Rails1.
Alright, there’s enough praise and hyperbole about Rails out there. No point adding my voice to the choir.
Anyway, from that base I planned to slowly bake in basic features like comments, tags, etc.
That’s when Captain Obvious paid me a visit saying, “You do realize that what you’re doing is a classic example of NIH syndrome.” I then realized that I could learn about Rails faster by using one of the blog platforms out there built on Rails and contributing back to it, instead of reinventing the wheel as I originally planned.
In the end I went with Typo. Not because I find it hilarious to have a blog that is “Typo Powered2”. And I did this despite the fact that their Trac page was down (and is still down) due to spam issues. Despite the fact its developers go by the rather dubious name of Leetsoft3. Despite the fact that Steve Yegge crucified Typo for its lack of documentation and difficulty of installation. I did find it easy to set up though, thanks to an excellent tutorial I found.
I initially chose Typo because it seemed to be the blog of choice for people playing around with Rails. I’ve stayed with it because its been a blast to use so far, despite the occasional bug I run into (which I could help with or at least look up if their Trac was up!) Lacks the polish of Wordpress et al, but makes up for it with some very nice glitz.
Thus for now, this blog is Typo Powered. It took me a long time to settle on an option—I went from self-built Django to self-built Rails to Typo, but I’m glad I took my time making a decision.
1 I’ll cover ideological differences between Django and Rails in the future when I’m more familiar with the latter.
2 I do find it hilarious, but that’s definitely not the basis of my decision-making.
3 OMGWTFBBQpewpew j00 lam3rz, everyone knowz its spelled as “l33t”!!!111one
