Plugging, Hacking and Release Candidates
Wordpress has a final RC available and I’ve installed it without significant issue.
“Papascott”:http://www.papascott.de/2004/05/21/3023.php says something that has been on my mind this week :-
bq.:http://www.papascott.de/2004/05/21/3023.php With WordPress, if you want to do anything slightly different from what it intends (for example, customizing the text of the monthly archive links, or listing the 5 latest comments), you end up writing a hack, essentially rewriting one of its PHP functions to do what you want. But PHP is at least logical and well-documented. Movable Type has it’s own well-documented but esoteric template language, for which you can find plugins to make it even more esoteric
You have two options if you are a coder and want to write weblog software that is specific to your needs. Firstly, you can write your own weblogging system (e.g. “Epistula”:http://www.aquarionics.com/#article-75) or you can use a pre-built package and write hacks or plugins for it. As long as the plugin system is flexible enough, and in a language you know, you have the benefit of not having to code a system from the ground up and have the benefit of a well written performant weblog without having to design it yourself.
MovableType didn’t work for me because I didn’t know Perl. Wordpress is better because PHP looks easier to learn, but I’m holding off writing any plugins or hacks until 1.2 is released. I don’t feel confident enough in the language to contribute yet. Also, when I did have time last night to look over the forums and see what others were doing, there was a database problem and I couldn’t access anything. (btw, the best plugin system was in “Vellum”:http://www.kryogenix.org/code/vellum/)