Category Archives: development

Static Site Generators

Posted on by james

I have been looking into some static site generators as WP new editing approach with the block editor is just a pain. It is taking over control of the page layout and flexibility of the single page view that I would prefer. I am also finding it to be slower to initially load pages and content. Then there is also the increasingly frequent updates needed to keep things secure. I’m sure part of the problem is the code is becoming so much more complicated. I run no plugins at all on my site, because they open up too many doors.

At first I was looking for an alternative CMS built on PHP. However, looking at that landscape there are no real alternatives. I want something simple that keeps the number of DB tables small as why should there be 50 tables for a simple website. Yet, everything I looked at has been ridiculously complicated if not on the front end then also the back end. I’ve custom built PHP CMSs myself and have thought about doing it again, but honestly I am no longer interested in maintaining that either.

So now I am looking at Static Site generators and finding that, there too I feel there is just so much unnecessary complication. Most are targeted towards developers and involve running multiple underlying frameworks and libraries. I have spent some time playing around with various ones that use node and find it still to be overly complicated. Another problem I am realizing is that I will no longer be able to update my site from my tablet/phone as I am doing right now. At this point I am almost thinking about going with straight html and manually updating pages.

CSS Animations

Posted on by james

So for some proof of concepts I recently created some animations using css. What would have in the past required javascript can now be done with css in many cases. Mozilla has a great overview and details on using css animations

In one animation I wanted an svg to rotate in the background and in another I wanted an element to slowly glow on and off. In both cases it helped to have a tool to do the basic animation. I have been using Figma for the last year and there are some plugins that will generate css animation code. Figmotion seems to be the most popular, but I liked Motion a bit better as it made it easier to select items in the hierarchy of your frame in its left side panel.

Unfortunately, Figma itself does not support viewing animations in the editor although you can save them in the GIF format that can then be played in the prototype player. Using Motion you can export it as an animated gif and then drag that file back into your Figma file. If you are using the animation else where as I was there are several other export options including CSS, which is what I needed.

I then took that css and played around with it more in codepen.io. You can find lots of other folks css animation experiments there as well.

Xcode: Apple’s Confusing App Builder

Posted on by james

So I have dabbled in building apps for Mac / iOS over the years and it continues to be one of the most confusing and un-Apple like experiences. Now I do not consider myself a good developer or I may not even rise to the level of a bad developer, but I can write code. I have mastered CSS, HTML, and have been able to build custom web apps in PHP, ASP/ASP.net, PERL, and JavaScript. I have also learned how to write queries and manage the basics of MS-SQL, MySQL, Postgres severs.

Yet, every time I start in on Xcode it is just a hodgepodge of UI and code. Sure there are starter bundles, code look-up, and contextual help, but there is nothing intuitive about building an app in Xcode. Compare this to visual studio from Microsoft and it is completely different. Sure Visual Studio (the full app not the VS Code) is also very complex, but I was surprised at how easy it was to add a button to the UI and then the write code for that button.

Wrote some code

Posted on by james

It has been a while since I last wrote some code. Not that long, maybe a month or two, but long enough that it felt refreshing. I’ve been writing a lot of reports, and emails of course, and creating a lot of mock-ups in Figma that I have not had time to code. Unlike Axure, Figma does not allow one to add code to a prototype. This is something, I wish I really could do though. It would be great to add both CSS and enhance/customize interactions with Javascript.