Despite my whining in the last post I got things mostly setup the way I wanted. Switched out to starting with simpler, shorter template, and made all my changes offline in vi. Only took another iteration or two to actually get everything working.
It's not quite perfect, but it's close. Let's say 85%. Good enough that I'm going to use it until we get closer to, say... 95%. Need to make sure it isn't actually hard to read or something else equally dysfunctional.
Despite my artistic handicap, I even managed to come up with a logo and matching favicon. Go me!
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
2006/09/07
2006/09/06
Blog Design Woes
Ever since the announcement that they got HTML editing setup and the new template language ready to go I've been thinking about doing a little redesign.
And, man, is it a pita. I've never been one for GUI design, honestly. Move this widget here. Push this thing over there. Wait, not yet. Do this thing a little more. Maybe that should be aligned the other way.
I swear you can do that stuff for hours. Throw colors in and I never actually get anything done since it never looks *quite* right. Their templating language is cool and all, but I find CSS in general to be extremely verbose. Couple that with the amount of processing they seem to do on the templates before it actually gets to your browser and its a bit annoying to figure out where a style is being applied. Not to mention a bit disorienting.
It doesn't really seem like downloading the template and editing it offline is really an option, either. If you try to display it, it just comes up with bits of a page. So, I've been using their online tools and it's been pretty slow going. Click on "Edit HTML" and muck around there, "Fonts and Colors" to set those, then to the other browser tab and refresh it to see what your page actually looks like.
I realize I could just ignore the "Fonts and Colors" friendly variable definitions, but it seems really negligent for some reason. And, I realize "Fonts and Colors" has a preview pane, but it seems to just be a static image so you can't see hover changes etc. Plus, it's cramped way down at the bottom of the view.
Having to use their plain-text editing window instead of vi sure is a drag, too.
Hmm...
And, man, is it a pita. I've never been one for GUI design, honestly. Move this widget here. Push this thing over there. Wait, not yet. Do this thing a little more. Maybe that should be aligned the other way.
I swear you can do that stuff for hours. Throw colors in and I never actually get anything done since it never looks *quite* right. Their templating language is cool and all, but I find CSS in general to be extremely verbose. Couple that with the amount of processing they seem to do on the templates before it actually gets to your browser and its a bit annoying to figure out where a style is being applied. Not to mention a bit disorienting.
It doesn't really seem like downloading the template and editing it offline is really an option, either. If you try to display it, it just comes up with bits of a page. So, I've been using their online tools and it's been pretty slow going. Click on "Edit HTML" and muck around there, "Fonts and Colors" to set those, then to the other browser tab and refresh it to see what your page actually looks like.
I realize I could just ignore the "Fonts and Colors" friendly variable definitions, but it seems really negligent for some reason. And, I realize "Fonts and Colors" has a preview pane, but it seems to just be a static image so you can't see hover changes etc. Plus, it's cramped way down at the bottom of the view.
Having to use their plain-text editing window instead of vi sure is a drag, too.
Hmm...
2006/08/21
Refactoring
Well, I knew it was bound to happen...
I went ahead and created the blog and decided on a name, and then I thought of a name I'd rather have the very next day. I figure, with the blog still in its infancy there's no harm in changing it at this point. So...
R.I.P. "Rendered Useless". Long live "Rendered Obsolete"!!!!
On the topic of blog content/maintenance/etc., we should be seeing a new design here shortly. There really isn't much to the Blogger templates, now I'm just busy mucking around with CSS. I'm a bit old-skool when it comes to web-design; I haven't done much since the heyday of HTML 2.0... yeah... I remember being all impressed when I got RealAudio meta-files figured out (are they even still around?). Anyway, stay tuned for that.
Also, in order to placate my insatiable whims for name changes, yet still amuse myself, I've decided to use a "sub-title" of sorts for the blog. Just something I can change from time to time, yet is essentially meaningless. What does this mean for you? Absolutely nothing. But, please think of it as being +1 to the "amusement" factor of the blog. Unexpected. Spontaneous. Random.
I went ahead and created the blog and decided on a name, and then I thought of a name I'd rather have the very next day. I figure, with the blog still in its infancy there's no harm in changing it at this point. So...
R.I.P. "Rendered Useless". Long live "Rendered Obsolete"!!!!
On the topic of blog content/maintenance/etc., we should be seeing a new design here shortly. There really isn't much to the Blogger templates, now I'm just busy mucking around with CSS. I'm a bit old-skool when it comes to web-design; I haven't done much since the heyday of HTML 2.0... yeah... I remember being all impressed when I got RealAudio meta-files figured out (are they even still around?). Anyway, stay tuned for that.
Also, in order to placate my insatiable whims for name changes, yet still amuse myself, I've decided to use a "sub-title" of sorts for the blog. Just something I can change from time to time, yet is essentially meaningless. What does this mean for you? Absolutely nothing. But, please think of it as being +1 to the "amusement" factor of the blog. Unexpected. Spontaneous. Random.
2006/08/20
Hello world?
Should the first post of a blog about console development/game development/general programming have any other title?
I should think not.
Partially inspired by my "extra-curricular" interests as of late, my long-standing love for Mixi (a Japanese social networking site), and partially driven by news of Google's intent to update the extremely outdated and ghetto Blogger, we have a new blog. Hopefully it won't befall the same fate as my last ill-conceived and neglected blog.
My hope is that interest in one will help drive and sustain progress/motivation in the other.
I intend to try and keep this reasonably focused on the area of console development. Logically, it will on occasion expand into other areas such as general game development and programming.
I'll be looking into the templates, CSS, etc. in short order to try and make it look a little less generic.
I should think not.
Partially inspired by my "extra-curricular" interests as of late, my long-standing love for Mixi (a Japanese social networking site), and partially driven by news of Google's intent to update the extremely outdated and ghetto Blogger, we have a new blog. Hopefully it won't befall the same fate as my last ill-conceived and neglected blog.
My hope is that interest in one will help drive and sustain progress/motivation in the other.
I intend to try and keep this reasonably focused on the area of console development. Logically, it will on occasion expand into other areas such as general game development and programming.
I'll be looking into the templates, CSS, etc. in short order to try and make it look a little less generic.
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