Posts filed under "themes"
Damn no matter how hard you try there’s always something you miss. I honestly don’t know why this didn’t show up on the radar when I originally released this. The problem is very minor and is found in the about, links and archives pages. Seems the code is causing an extra gap in where there shouldn’t be one. Thing is I tried this on two different machines and it didn’t turn up, so I don’t know what the deal is exactly. However please if you’re one of those that is having trouble with your static pages giving you gaps download the upgrade or go to the forums for an explanation.
This marks the official release of Manji. I released the Preview version a little over 2 weeks ago. I think the preview was a great idea because I got so much feedback of what was broken and where. Somethings I was fully aware of others I was a bit in the dark about, so I’d like to thank everyone who’s downloaded it and said good things about it and used it. I really appreciate all the love.
I’ve sorted out those permalink pages now, so the official Manji download page is www.brokenkode.com/manji as you would generally expect it to be. Could I ask all those who’ve made lists on their sites etc to just point to this location now. I do appologise for the inconvenience but at least now it’ll be easier to find in the future.
Gratitude First things is a big shout out to Alphaoide who’s come into the dev side of things to help me out, since to be completely honest is a godsend, as I’m no coder. He’s been a ROCK and I’d just like to thank him for all the help. If you guys bump into him on the boards or wherever please be sure to thank him as well.
So what’s been fixed? Loads of things, here’s a list:
- Xhtml validation on main page (this was very minor and stupid mistake on my part, but hey it did get released).
- CSS validation on main page.
- IE funkiness has been sorted out. This was specifically in the comments form section and general spacing in the footer area.
- Comment edit buttons now look the same in IE and FF. Originally pngs they’re now gifs.
- The comments underline used to break if there was a long name or a pingback. That’s not an issue any more.
- Spacing of the actual naviation menu sorted out.
What’s new?
- About page now gets edited from the static page menu rather than hand coding it in the about.php file.
- No need to edit the file to activate the comment buttons. They’ll activated automatically.
- Hovering over the comment edit buttons also tells the user what they do.
- Masthead is now clickable by default.
What about the code? Did you clean it up you lazy bastard? Well once you look under the hood, you see that a lot has been modified:
- The css has now been completely sorted out into structure and typography. Each section of the page has also been clearly labelled, so now skinning and modifying the actual look of your site could not be easier.
- The php has been streamlined big time and again given a bit of a polish so you now know where something begins and where it ends.
What’s next? Loads. I’m not as anxious to get the rest of my ideas out there as I was to get this release, mainly because soo many people seemed to be using the template, and I felt that I should give them a more rounded product. I’ve still got Lava Flavoured Manji to release sometime in the future, which is basically a darker version of Manji for everyone that’s not into the white space.
A 1.2 version is still in the works believe it or not, and I’ll probably work on that next (as far as Manji is concerned).
I have one final idea that needs some serious development but I think it’s a pretty neat idea. Alphaoide came up with the name, but I’ll see how much that idea flies and I’ll talk about it more if I think it’s something that would be useful.
That was a pretty good evening actually. Went to my most favourite place in Camden (and currently in all of London as well) Tupello Honey, had some fantastic carrot cake straight from the over, PLENTY of icing on top, and a nice cappuccino. So I’m sitting there with Alfonso and we’re discussing our ‘other’ lives outside the office. See the fonz is a kindred spirit in that sense, he’s got just as much crap going outside of work as me; due to being older however he’s mastered how to deal with a lot of it… I haven’t…yet.
Wrote the list of things to do. I don’t know about everyone else but I’ve write loads of these, sometimes I make a dent in them, othertimes not really. The thing is though, wrote all of them and started prioritizing the items. Strange but everything’s kind of fallen into place. I do know exactly what is required at this point in time for me. It’s very clear to me, at the same time it’s going to be hard to stay on the actual direct line of action I’ve drawn up.
Development of Manji is actually only for tonight. I’m pleased to say 98% of it is complete. In fact I can probably go live pretty soon with version 1.0, however as Alphaoide (more on him later) pointed out, some more work needs to be done in cleaning up the php files, to fit into the theme structure that Ryan Boren has set up through his example of Kubrick.
So the question I have to ask myself is this:
- Does it validate? Xhtml and css? Yes on both accounts.
- Does it look the same in Firefox and IE? Yes completely and utterly (really happy about that).
- Have I sorted out all the little bugs and gotten it to have all the features I wanted it to have in the beginning? Yes, all comments from the boards etc have been integrated more or less.
- Is the CSS clean and clear for editing purposes? Damn straight. A lot of work in cleaning this little baby up making it soo simple to edit. Once you see it you’ll all understand.
So what’s the problem? Well while the php works fine, there is the problem that it’s not as polished as I would like it to be. This last part can be what’s on for the next stage of development as we get closer to a wordpress 1.3 release. More questions will be asked about the template system and so it will get more clear to me what is required and what is not. Please bear in mind that until 6 months ago I’d never really dealt with php, so I think I’ll need some more time to get my head around it all. It’s damn powerful stuff, and I wish I understood it more but hey I’m going on small overload here, which is why I had asked Root to help me out originally.
Which brings me back to Alphaoide (see told you I’d get back to him). Behind the scenes the man has been an absolute gem. He’s been answering all my dumbass questions and solving all the problems that I’ve had, which has prompted me to ask him if he’d be interested in joining me on my next project. I’ve also asked Chris Davis to join in on this little project as well, which he seems keen on just seems the man’s been pretty busy lately, but I’m hoping he’ll join in as well because I think he’d be great to have on the team.
So what is it I’m talking about you ask? The tentative title of the project (and most of you know that I’m pretty bad when coming up with names), is Shuttle. What is Shuttle? Simply, it’s going to be a brand new spanking interface for the Wordpress Admin Control Panel. I’m sorry Matt, I love you, but the Wordpress interface is something to me that is sorely lacking in style and sometimes functionality. I don’t think there are that many people (except if they’re serious coders and really don’t care what it looks like) that really love the aesthetics of the Wordpress Control Panel.
I’m going to admit something, and that’s the fact that I nearly didn’t go for Wordpress over Textpattern due to the weak interface. What can I say I’m a shallow designer, who places a lot on the actual appearance. What actually kept me was the fact that the Wordpress community was absolutely buzzing. I just had one look at the boards, and knew that if there was a question I needed it would be answered, and that was reassuring, however I’ve never liked the Control Panel, and well I don’t think it’s really on Ryan’s or Matt’s minds right now, so it’s up to the rest of the community to sort it out. That’s where the Shuttle Team come into play.
What’s the ETA on this? Don’t ask silly questions, you won’t get silly answers. To be fair I think it will be at least 2 months down the line, hopefully less, but I’m being realistic about all of this. So why mention all of this now you ask? Well as this is something that is effectively user based I’d really like to hear which plugins, functions whatever you use, used to use or whatever from other blogging systems (just name them) or whatever that you think would be perfectly suited to the admin panel. I’ve created a new section on the boards for this so if anyone has any ideas/thoughts about it please just drop in and give your thoughts.
I’m going to do a little bit of Manji work, and decide tomorrow whether to release it or not. Also Manji has been downloaded over 500 times since it went live 12 days ago. Again thanks to everyone for their interest and support.
Right this is the last post I make regarding Manji until I’ve released version 1.0. There has been development on this. Most of the issues I had have been sorted out to be honest. I had this massive list of around 15 things that I had to go through, that to be honest some of which I noticed after I went live with the preview. I’m kinda glad for this little period because I got to actually see potential problems arising from the various blogs that have been popping up here and there. Don’t think I’m not watching. I’d like to really thank everyone who’s downloaded Manji, talked about it with such kind words on their blogs and who have embrassed it for what it is.
I really want to include everyone’s flavours in the spotlight but I think that would be counter productive. So the gallery is forth coming so that everyone can have their spotlight of sorts.
The official version of Manji will come out towards the end of this week, begining of next week. I’ve also got a couple of other announcements but I need the perverbial ink to dry and contracts to be “signed”. I’ve got to get confirmation that I can talk about these things openly really.
For all those that have customised their blogs already, fear not as I’ll be posting all my changes after a fashion (where I deem it necessary) on the forum that way you can go back into your edited code and change it accordingly. I’ve kept track of everything really so it shouldn’t be much of a problem.
It’s a three point play and Manji is on fire. The latest spotlight is on James’ rendition. James is actually one of the beta testers, which is why in the footer he’s got the name Chameleon rather than Manji, but that’s because he has the pre-preview release of it (and you thought I ran into this unprepared). I’ve got to say the man’s excelled himself again. What I love about seeing all these versions is what way they’re actually using the open space provided in the background. Each spotlight so far has taken the background and used it in a different way.
Also one of the things I’m seeing more about is the use of the top space before the post as an area for a static (or changing comment) that puts people in the mood for what they’re about to read. Nice touch that.
I could spot Jame’s style a mile away it’s very unique in all his previous renditions; the computer screen really is his canvas and it’s an honour to have his rendition as part of the Manji family. He hasn’t named it yet so once he does I’ll be sure to update this post.
Question 1. Does anyone have any nice ideas for a gallery I could set up? I’m not really keen on flickr as the pictures really don’t do the work any justice, or at least that’s my impression. Ideally I’d like something that has a button to show thumbnails and then more details. Fade in and out effects are also welcome. Question 2. One last bit of news, I’ve got only the comment box rendition in IE to deal with before I can release Version 1.0 of Manji. There have been several fixes and a couple of new features added, but I’m having trouble sorting it out, soo if you’ve actually worked it out and can make the comment insert box look the same in FF and IE please drop me a line and save me some hours work.
Before anyone gets confused I did say that the downloadable theme is actually a preview. That being said I’ve more or less hammered all the validation and cross-browser issues associated with the theme. It’s been a pretty productive night to be honest. I had nine points I’d jotted down that I needed to go through, now I’m down to 3.
Don’t worry I’ve kept a good track of what changes I’ve made so that all those already gotten into their skinning will be able to pick up some of the points from the previous release and sort out those issues (unless you’ve already sorted them out).
Quick question does anyone know why the hell my 508 validation doesn’t work? I can’t for the life of me sort it out, or understand the criteria, so if anyone can help me out here, that would be really appreciated (also bringing the problems/issues down to 2/9).
Once that’s done I’ve got to actually start thinking about how I’m going to skin broken kode. I’ve been soo preoccupied trying to get Manji off and out I’ve had no time to properly think about it, although I’ve got a couple of ideas,…that’s what the weekend is going to be for…
Now see this is interesting. Basically it’s a javascript you install on your server and link up your header to it. Dumbs everything down so that the way it was coded for a web compliant browser shows up on IE.
The website is courtesy of one Dean Edwards. I would have loved this for version 1.0 of Broken Kode.
Thankfully Manji doesn’t have too many cross-browser glitches. I know full well of 3 of them and I’m trying to resolve them right now. I’ve already sorted out a couple of glitches thanks to the guys on the forum and just general tinkering. If you’ve seen any others just give me a shout on the forums, or e-mail me.
I’ve built the index page for the 1.2 version as well, and now it’s a matter of getting all the other pages sorted. Hopefully an alpha version of 1.2 will come out this sunday as well.
Also I’m going to start spotlighting Manji themes that I come across that make me smile. I’ve already talked about Paul’s This is not a love story, thought I’d include:
What I love about it are the colours actually. They’re so muted and yet vibrant at the same time. And while he says he doesn’t like the header I think it gives the entire site a certain painted feeling, tying everything in. Subtle, but he uses all that space given in the default to his advantage. Using his space like an open canvas.
Man, I’m completely overwhelmed by the response Manji has received so far.
The critics have come back If this was a movie this post here by Chris would be considered a ‘GLOW REVIEW, THUMBS UP!’. Aaand my head’s just exploded. So I’d just like to say thank you to everyone who’s said really nice things about Manji, I truely appreciate it, honestly it all makes it worth while. I love how the he’s taken the mastheads and put them in the post, just makes them look oh soo much more pro.
How many times? At around 15:00 this afternoon (roughly since I checked the number of downloads around then), Manji preview had been downloaded more than 100 times. Again thanks to everyone for their interest. Just want to thank Chris for providing the tools to get a system to actually quantify the downloads, fantastic stuff, thanks Chris.
Clarifying the relationship with Root I would like to try and give a bit more information on the actual design process for Manji. On the 1st of October I contacted Root. I ended that conversation with this:
I see this project as a plugin that may eventually have it’s own interface, or even because there are plugins I’d like to incorporate into the design. I’ve come up with a name, which I’m more than willing to change if you’re on board and hate it :). The name I’ve chosen is Manji.Again this is a long shot, but if you’re up for it I think this could be something really cool.
I’m still keen on the own interface idea but I think the WP dev team has done pretty great job in sorting out the theme manager. Now bearing in mind that Root had only seen the previous version of my site, his response was this:
I am in 100%. Tell me what you need.
For the next two months Root would work absolutely tirelessly on the template with me. It was one of those amazing moments where I found someone that could match me for the amount of time we would spend on getting the actual design correct. The first Sunday we worked on the template from jpg to working theme (kind of) we must have spent 12 hours straight, and 60 comment posts later.
So from my point of view the man was nothing but an absolute joy to work with. Of course I was aware of what was going on with Micheal but I decided to stay away from that whole thing; in fact this is the first time I discuss it on my blog. I just want to say that I love Kubrick. I think it’s a great design, and I think Micheal has a great writing style. I believe the strength that Wordpress has over other software is the community. It’s the people in it and it’s the main reason I love it so much, and ultimately chose it over other software out there that do more or less the same thing.
Basically from our original e-mails it was originally thought that I would lead this and Root would come into it as and when that was needed. Once I started getting into the code it was pretty apparent that he should take care of that side of things. Root went in and I’d basically ask for something to be done and it would be done before my eyes in the most amazing way. He’d come up against a couple of bricks every once in a while and he’d have the resolution in a few hours at the latest.
I took care of how everything looked and would go in and tweak the spacing the typography, the colours the overall design while Root would make sure it validated and was easy to modify. I really hope I can recreate that level of collaboration in the future with other people.
On Flavouring Reasons behind a Flavouring system comes from the fact that I draw a lot. This also means I take pride in a something after I’ve finished with it and sign it. I think it’s such a saticifying end to a piece of work you slaved over. It’s not always possible on the internet. By naming a tweaked version of a template I think it puts your signature on it. Then show it off at What’s your flavour?
Future of Manji I might have some news on the coding front but I’m going to wait before I make any announcements.
- I want to finish the code for Manji off properly get it polished.
- There are a couple of annoying things that happen that I’m starting to see for myself like how it deals with Pings and trackbacks; amongst other things.
- Finish that manual I’ve been writing for a few weeks now out there (although as more questions start cropping up in the forum, I might wait until I’ve gotten a few more questions/problems fixed so I don’t have to keep updating the manual)
- I’ve still got loads of plans for Manji. I’ve got another 3 flavours sitting on my hardrive ready to be released, when I get a change to skin them properly.
- Sort out a version for 1.2. Hopefully I’ll get that done tonight, although testing is going to be a bit difficult.
As promised today sees the release of Nebula Flavoured Manji Version 1.0 preview. I do apologise that it’s not the official final 1.0 version but I’ve come to accept that the design on Manji is going to be fluid in nature. I’m pretty confident with this release. Is it perfect? Not yet, but I think given a bit of time it will be as close as possible in this crazy world of cyberspace.
If you would care to sample a small taste of Manji please go to the download page.
Also the Manji forums are open for any help you might need. I’ve already written a couple of questions for the FAQ which should help you guys out initially.
What’s even crazier is that a new Manji flavour has already appeared courtesy of Paul over at This Is Not A Love Story has released Sideshow. Does that make it Sideshow Flavoured Manji? Personally I love the name Nicotine Flavoured Manji.
Manji Introduction. The first time I talked about Manji was in this post right here. That was on the 28th of September. The name of the theme changed to Chameleon, however I quickly realised that the name was common in it’s use on the internet for various programs, so I had to rethink my name, and in the end Manji just sounds better.
What is Manji? Manji is a template for the Wordpress blogging software. Effectively it’s a skin for your website, that is easy to modify and while you customise it to your own needs will hold down the fort in style.
Flavouring System. One of the first ideas that came to me as I was doing the design was to actually have something called a flavouring system. Since I always intended Manji to have a GPL license, I thought any derivatives could have their own unique name as well, chosen by the person who did the mods. That way people could put their own signature. So when eventually you download the theme and change it around a nice and uniform way of naming would be “Something” Flavoured Manji.
Manji History I originally contact Root (an active member of the wordpress community and all round CSS and XHTML guru) on whether he would like to work on a template together. I would do the design he would do the coding parts. This was back on 1st of October 2004. At that point in time I’d actually made a draft copy of the final design. I knew it would change significantly but the original thoughts that I had would remain throughout the design.
We talked about the logistics of working in completely different cities (same country) and eventually I set up a secret installation where we begun work in ernest. It became pretty clear to Root earlier on that in terms of coding I was a complete monkey and that he best take over completely from that side of things. The way it would work is that I would draw mock ups in freehand and photoshop and he’d set everything up for me, I’d then go back in and tweak the colours, fonts, text sizes etc.
We completed around 85% of the template before he disappeared off the internet. None of this would have been done without him and so he is credited completely for contributing to the design. I can’t put xhtml and css by Root, because I’ve made a mess of it since he left, if/when he gets back we’ll release an updated version of the template that will incorporate how you’re meant to do code it correctly. Any validation errors you get are of my construction as Root left it validating 100%. I will admitt with Root gone, my motivation and confidence in the project did fall. Thankfully David Prince stepped up for both moral support and helping out with the code whenever he could. Without him I might never having finished what we started. So thanks David.
Reason behind Manji. The reason behind Manji is to provide a template under a GPL license that is both asthetically pleasing while at the same has valid xhtml and css and is as accessible as possible. I decided to do this because I wanted to give something back to the wordpress community. I love to support open source projects and this is one that I’m very proud to be a part of. In my mind this is the only way I can contribute to it constructively. The main draw the wordpress community had/has over other open-source blogging software is the community that surrounds it; at least this is how I came to my decision.
Philosophy. The main idea behing Manji is as simple as it’s mark up. The most important aspect of a blog should first and foremost be the content itself. It should take centre stage. All additional elements can be considered a distraction. The issue is however that these elements are generally useful if they are required. That issue is addressed by having links to these main important aspects right at the top in the navigation section of the template.
I’m also a firm believer in less is more, at least with respect to design. In terms of words I do find it more difficult.
Manji Version 1.0 Beta will go live on Sunday, and I’ll update and tweak it till I get the perfected version 1.0 sometime down the line. Hopefully with feedback and ideas it’ll grow bigger and better. Of course you could just copy the css etc, but have patience and you’ll have everything in a tidy little download in a few short days.
Is about to be live for the final time today. I’m going to be switching to the default Manji theme and Wordpress 1.3, please excuse the mess while I upgrade.
Update: That was a lot easier than I thought to be honest. I’m going to be show casing Manji for the first time right here. I’ll hopefully release a beta version for people on Sunday and as the months go by I’ll eventually get it all out there. To be honest I’m tired of the secrecy, it’s a work in progress I might as well accept this. Two months of preparation are a lot.
Yeah I’ve still not decided on the final name for the template, although I can say that the Beta version is complete. There are some tweaks I’d like to get done and then clean up the code.
The beta testers should be getting an e-mail from me sometime tomorrow I hope. This’ll tell me where it works and where it doesn’t which platform it’s completely borked in, etc.
So the good news is I’ll hopefully be going live with Version 1.0 sometime next week, which is a nice.
The main issue then is how I’m going to skin it for Broken Kode :).
http://www.brokenkode.com/chameleon-version-10-beta-complete
Just in case you were wondering how it’s going, I can happily report that we’re sooo much closer. I say we as I’ve brought David Prince to help me out in the final stages of the project. It’s been a pretty productive week I’ve got to admit. The core pages are all working fine in Firefox and so far so good on the validation front. We’ve got a couple of things to deal with to complete it. I don’t know what kind of numbering system I should be employing for it though. It’s not a 0.1 release since it’s more complete than that, the thing is I can see myself sorting out things in the future. The thing is a 0.1 release implies it’s not finished, when in actual fact it’s not exactly that far off.
Also I think I’ll be changing the name. I’m not sure to what, and I’ll be explaining the reasoning once I’ve actually decided on another name. I’ve been working on this for the past 2 months, and I can finally see the end of the light. So in keeping with the theme I’ll post another section of the cover.
About 2 weeks ago I saw a link on pixelsurgeon. It was relating to a promotion Epson were doing for their new range of printers. Basically the idea was for you to put your prefered piece of whatever, drawing/photo/design onto a cd in the resolution they required etc, and they would send you a print of your drawing in the end. I was all over this promotion, the thing is I didn’t expect the results to be as stunning as they turned out to be. I mean this thing is an absolute beauty. I can’t stop looking at it. The colours are exactly like I imagined and put them onto my screen.
I’ll post a picture once it’s framed. The thing is though I’ve decided that I’m going to be getting into the limited edition prints business. Any one of my illustrations will have a limited print run of 10 prints maximum, and no more after that. I say 10 because I doubt I can afford to stock any more than that at any given time. This will also make sure I do one illustration a month. They’ll probably be at A2 size as it really does show off the artwork in the best possible way.
It’s an idea I’ve had for a while now. The reason I haven’t acted on this is that I’ve never seen my digital work printed in large on good paper, except that one time 6 months ago. Iliosnare will go live sooner than I thought.
In Chameleon news, I’m slightly more confident about the final product. I’ve tweaked the size slightly and sorted out the javascript as an original exercise to start with. The list has increased since the last time I thought about it, but baby steps and I’ll get there. And just because I’m a complete tease here’s another snippet of the cover, from a completely different section of it :).
Update: Oops, erm didn’t realise I’d closed the comments, erm if you’d like to add a comment please feel free to :).
Been a pretty productive weekend to be honest. I’ve really hammered through a load of ideas that have been floating in my head for a while now. The good news is that I’ve completed the cover to the Chameleon Manual cover. Here’s a small teaser of it. Just to clarify that’s not the whole image, just a small part of it :).
How’s the development of Chameleon going? Well pretty slowly to be honest, my partner in crime Rootie has gone AWOL for the past week and a half and I can’t seem to get through to him. I hope he’s ok but he’s not answering his e-mails and he’s not posted anything on his blog for a while now. I’ve got the following list of things to do before I can release Version 1.0 of the template:
- Incorporate some icons for some pretty simple javascript.
- Write the part of the manual relating to the CSS and the code itself.
- Bring into play the additional php pages that make up the template, i.e the search page, archives page, links page etc.
- Sort out the main menu at the top of the page since it seems a bit borked right now.
- Have a small little play-around with the footer, I think I can make things work slightly better than what they’re being shown right now.
- Continue and NOT screw the perfect validation that’s been established by Root so far.
I’ll hopefully get down and dirty this week to be honest. It’s going to be tough as I’ve got loads of other things that need to be done this week as well.
Anyone interested in being a beta tester when we get there?
So the release date is:
So yesterday was a very significant day in the development of Chameleon. We more or less finished it. Rootie put the xhtml tag to check the validation and it came back with ONLY 7 errors the first time out the door. This for me was a massive achievement, as it’s something that was without a doubt 100% Rootie’s doing. If it was down to me we’d be enjoying the coding mess that is brokenkode with it’s 141 errors. Within like 10 minutes that was down to like 1 and now I can say that both the CSS and XHTML validates 100%.
That is a very important milestone to be honest, as Root’s kept to his end of the bargain and provided a rock solid foundation. Sure there’s going to be tweaks but it’s pretty encouraging going into the tweaking stage knowing you comply with web standards.
The thing is now the pressure is on me to make sure the design and the colours are actually working nearly as well as the code itself. This’ll be a busy weekend for graphics and design in casa brokenkode as I go a bit mental with the design. It’s going to be good fun. So when is Chameleon going to be released officially? I’m a natural born optomist and I’d like to say next week, however I’ve been giving this a lot of thought and I’d rather go live when all the ideas we’ve got are completed and will only be revised slightly in the future. That means that ideally next week, however realistically it won’t go live till the week after that. For everyone scratching their heads asking ‘if you’ve completed the design what’s the problem?’ Once you finally get the end result I think you’ll understand why it’ll take another 2 weeks before we release it. I don’t want to say too much right now, but needless to say it’s something unique that I haven’t seen in any templates I’ve downloaded.
A few people have guessed what Chameleon is, so for all those in the dark about a month ago I contacted Rootie over at atthe404 asking him if he would like to join me on this idea I had for a wordpress template that would be slotted in no fuss no huss when Version 1.3 came out. For those scratching their heads asking ‘What the hell is wordpress?’ it’s the system that runs this site. What you think it’s all done by magic? Anyway, we’ve been working on this thing for 2 weeks solid. It’s been arguably one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had on the net. The idea was to have both design and code come together as one. I would worry about how it would look like, and why; while Root concentrated on making sure the code was lean and mean and to the point, and ultimately wasn’t broken.
It was a bit jarring at first working with someone where the only method we’ve decided to communicate with each other was through the development site we set up, however those issues got ironed out very fast. That way we’ve got a complete account of absolutely everything we ever had a problem with. I think when I chose to contact Root (yeah I know his name, but to everyone else he shall remain as the entity known as Root :) ) I couldn’t have imagined how amazing the collaboration actually would be. For a start I’ve got to say I’m a complete obsessive perfectionist. I have to have it perfect to the pixel so that I can be content, and I don’t mind spending the time to get it there. Root matched me hour for hour, and probably a lot more in trying to get this sorted out. The man just doesn’t get tired…ever.
So what does it look like? Hmm I don’t want to give it away just yet but what I will be doing is actually running the default on my site for about 2 weeks after it goes live, and then I’ll be skinning it for brokenkode appropriately. We’re going to be releasing it under a GPL license, and that’s always been the case.
There are going to be several features that distinguish it and hopefully people will get a kick out of it once we’ve released it officially.
I guess it’s a new chapter for the site as we go into Version 2.0.
You are a chameleon; very changeable- as the chameleon changes its hue to that of contiguous objects. “As the chameleon, who is known To have no colours of its own, But borrows from his neighbour’s hue, His white or black, his green or blue.” Change your opinions as a chameleon changes its colour.
It’s been a few days, yes I know, but hey what can I say it’s been unbelievable couple of days. My computer has completely taken my mind away. I know it sounds geeky but to be honest I really could give two shits about whatever anyone says. My computer is my portal to the world, and it’s my tool for creativity. I’ve been waiting for it for 3 weeks solid now, and now that I have it I swear it’s like I’m in love. The reason is very simple: it opens up the roads to creativity and the doors to expression are blown open. I’ve been waiting patiently to begin so many projects that it seems like an eternity, ok maybe 6 months :).
So what does it feel like having a 20 inch screen? I tell you what now that I’ve tried this it’s extremely cramped at work, still stuck on a 1024 x 768 resolution. I can see why many web designers are getting more and more frustrated with the limitations of 800 x 600. So in that little time I’ve redesigned the look of Broken Kode. The template has been changed from ‘Broken’ to Manji, and in contrast to what was stated before it’s Version 0.1.
What is Manji going to be? Well much in the same way that Kubrick has made web logs seem asthetically more pleasing, I’m hoping Manji will do the same only for a different kind of asthetic. Basically one of my pet peeves is that weblogs traditionally look like weblogs. When that happens they traditionally look a bit boring or standard. You’ve got the text on the left hand side, and a few links on the right. Don’t get me wrong there’s a good reason why that’s all there, but I can’t but help that it’s actually rare for anyone to look at the gumph on the side, it’s just my opinion, and as well all know they’re like assholes,….everyone’s got one’. The content should be everything.
Believe it or not Broken Kode is up to version 3 right now, it’s true in less than a year I’ve changed the look of this site 3 times, and I’m at it again. The first time round was my attempt at a three panel type arrangement, and seem waay too cluttered. Got that streamlined, then Moveable Type decided to change it’s licensing and I ditched that template even though I liked it because it was easier to do one from scratch than try and hack that one into a Wordpress equivalent. So we’re now on version 3.
Version 4 is going to come out under a template system, Manji. Everything before was training. I’m going to write most of this stuff from the ground up, so my original estimate of a week is highly optimistic as I’ve got loads of things going on right now. What I can say is that the mock up of the Manji has taken me 3 days, inspiration just hit and I think it’s pretty cool, while keeping very closely with what has been established before. I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from Michael and Kubrick, but only in so much as how he’s gone about a few things which I generally like, such as the data at the bottom. I also like the fact that the css is clean. I could do with that, some nice streamline, clean css.
On a completely unrelated note I’d like to wish my brother good luck on the begining of his adventure. His Uni shut down in Greece due to mismanagement. He’s got two options in front of him. Either go down to Lebanon and continue his studies there where he’ll be able to pass on his credits and get a decent degree from a respected Uni in Lebanon. The alternative is to go to LaVerne California, in California, as they realised the remaining students have been screwed, so it’s the least they can do. They put forth their affiliation they should make sure the students can walk away with a degree. It’s an opportunity he didn’t expect when he began at this Uni 2 years ago. Personally I’m not sad for him, I think this could potentially be the best thing to happen to him. Good luck buddy.