Coming up for air...

Well it been quite a while since I wrote something, which is good and bad.

Good because it means I’m busy doing stuff.

Bad because I was trying to be consistent in my writing.

So what have I been doing, besides working like mad?

Well, I’ve been building my own Content Management System (CMS). I got so annoyed at having to work on open source CMSs that are badly coded, difficult to modify and so full of
security holes that you could never rely on them to keep any data safe.

So I’ve built my own one with security designed in from the start. It has a different focus than the other CMSs on the web. This one is designed to be hacked. It’s for developers to use as a core for their project, knowing that it is secure, stable and standards compliant.

This weekend was the big breakthrough. I finished including the last major component and got al the code validating.

The PHP validates in Zend, the HTML validates using HTML Tidy and the CSS validates also. It was a good process to go through as it highlighted several potential bugs and I could deal with them before they ever became a problem.

I was delighted as I was going through the process at how quickly the number of errors came down, and at how easy it was to find the cause and code a solution.

It confirmed the ideas I had at the start – this should be easy to modify to suit any project.

So now I’ve got a few bugs to fix, like dealing with dates in my calendar. And finishing off a few small features that make it easier and then it will useable.

So while it has been a bit of a long hard road to get here, I’m very happy with what I’ve got to work with now, and there is a strong sense of pride in being able to build something that ‘just works’.

Check back soon if you’re interested in the progress of it. I’ll put some more info up as I get time.