What's Planned for MachCMS 1.1?

I've been working on an active deployment of MachCMS 1.0 recently, and there are a few things I would like to add for the next release.

1. Google Sitemap integration. MachCMS would automatically create and keep updated a sitemap.xml file which Google can use to crawl your pages.
2. Integrated search. A built-in search extension. It can be used to search all the MachCMS pages using an MC generated search cache.
3. Support for plugins. So anybody can write a plugin that pages can use.

Other than that I will improve the learning curve by improving the experience when the system has been setup. Going to it originally will instantly tell you how to get started step by step.

Safari Pulling Ahead

I'm a really active Firefox user. The only time I use another browser is when I'm downloading Firefox or doing some testing.
But Safari, or technically Webkit has been pulling ahead of Mozilla in terms of implementing new W3C standards such as CSS.
Mozilla has XForms and SVG which Safari doesn't but SVG is already planned and knowing them it won't take nearly as long as it took the Mozilla SVG project.
But it's really in the area of CSS that Safari is pulling ahead of the game fast. Just checkout the latest blog post about new support for parts of CSS3.


I wonder how long it will take before somebody builds a Windows version? Linux already has Konqueror.

Google Talk Released

Today Google Talk has been officially released. It already worked yesterday but today it became official.

They have a client that is only available for Windows operating systems but almost any jabber client including iChat can connect to the server.
If you would like to talk to me my user id is artooro.
The service requires a GMail account so if you need that leave a comment and I can get you one.

Israeli Forced Evacuation

Read more at the Jerusalem Post.

What is my position? I am totally against the disengagement for several reasons.

• Why should the Israeli people suffer so that the Palestinians can enjoy some more fruit of their labors? Their labors being suicide bombing and attacks against Jews in general.
• The Palestinians have done nothing, and I repeat nothing to help the peace. There have been talks but what good is a talk without the walk?

And that basically rounds my thoughts up. The only thing the Palestinians want is to destroy Israel. This forced evacuation will do nothing to help the peace. After things have settled down I expect a new surge in violence because now the Palestinians believe they have won and can continue to win more land with their attacks against civilians. This is the result of Islam.

Audacity 1.2.3 Versus Sound Studio 2.2.4

Sound Studio wins without any real competition from Audacity except for being cross platform (Sound Studio only runs on Mac OS X) and free. Sound Studio is payware (except in my case where I got it free from Apple) while Audacity is free as in open source.

It's a pity Linux has no real good audio and video editing software that can compete with what I can run on my Mac.

Amaya W3C Web Browser and Editor on OSX

I just checked out Amaya again today as I've been looking forward to the native Mac OS X version for awhile now and it's been fulfilled.
Here's a screeshot of the left.

I have not done much with it yet but on first glance, I think I will be using it a little at least.

Back to wxPHP Again

Well today I finished releasing MachCMS 1.0 to the world. Yesterday the MacOSX installer was released and today the standard releases.


So I started work on wxPHP again. I've been kind of fed up with the GNU style make system and so will leave that for somebody else to figure out. Meanwhile I'm going to move to Xcode.
I've linked wxWidgets to wxPHP which is the first step. The next major step is to get a window to appear.

MachCMS on PHP4 Attempt #2

Today I tried once again to get MachCMS working together with PHP 4. With my experience from the last attempt, it only took me 3 hours of constant work. I rewrote the DataBase class which uses a CSV based file format (PHP4 only) instead of the much better SQLite which is only supported with PHP5.

I cannot make these two versions compatible with each other though. For example in the PHP5 version you could do this to set a value in the template:
$template->MyValue = "This is my value";

While in the PHP4 version you have to do the same thing like this:
$template->values['MyValue'] = "This is my value";

As you can plainly see, the latter is more complex and is simply means more typing.
So pages written for PHP4 are compatible with the PHP5 version, but not vise-versa.

I am now going to put MC through some real world testing and then build a Mac OSX installer before releasing.

Evolution or Intelligent Design?

If you've read my blog or know me at all. You know that I know that the false theory of evolution is just that. False.

But what about this relatively new thing called Intelligent Design? While I do agree with them when it comes to there being an intelligent designer. I do not believe they can have much of an effect because they do not acknowledge the designer. So to the eyes of the "unbelievers", it's an incomplete theory. Not that evolution is anything but incomplete. The problem is brainwashing and the will many people have to deny any supreme being. Religion seems to = really bad for society these days.
They are doing some good though, through challenging evolution in the public schools. And I do wish them success to a degree.

I provoke you now to read this article called "Evolution--Impossible to Embarrass Its Believers."
I hope it will have some effect on you. Yes I do believe in Creation. Not only because it's the only "theory" that makes any kind of sense. But because anything in the scriptures must be true. If we cannot prove it now, it will be proven in the future.

I challenge all of you to a dual. Leave a comment about why Creation cannot be true or challenge it in some way, and while you're at it leave a pro-evolution comment. Let us see here who wins.

MachCMS 1.0 RC1 Released

I have written the documentation and finished the feature list and fixed all the bugs I know about.
Read the news on the MachCMS web site.

What needs to be done before the final release? Well right now I'm working on the PHP4 version. This will take a couple of days at least because MachCMS uses a lot of PHP5 only features. For example SimpleXML, PDO, overloading, classes & objects.

The more difficult part will be writing a PHP4 version of PDO. I do not plan on actually doing that but instead writing a flat file database system that is transparent to the current Database class in MachCMS. It will interact just like PDO but that's as far as the similarities go.

Then it needs to go through some real world testing before it's ready for release. I hope to release it by or on August 12th.

UPDATE:
I have now finished PHP4 support. It's full of dirty hacks and stuff that is hard coded. Both which are foul language in the programming world. I'm not even sure if I'll release it because the code looks so ugly.
Guess we'll find out next week.

MachCMS Short Term Foresight

OK, I've been working on polishing up MachCMS 1.0 for release. It's going to be great. I don't care if nobody else uses it but I know it will be of great value to me. And this is the first time I released a piece of software that I can actually really make good use of. :)
Well it's not released yet but soon will be.

So when will it come out? Simple answer: When it's done. Long complicated answer that doesn't make sense: The first half of August.
Most of the code is written. Basically it needs to go through some more testing and real world use.
The main thing that needs to be done yet is write some good documentation for installation, configuration/customization, and usage.
It's not difficult but it would be if not documented.

MachCMS 1.0 will require PHP 5.0.0 or later with PDO installed. PHP 5.1.0 or later is good too when it's released :)

Right after v1.0 is out, I'm going to make a PHP 4 version. Why? Because some crazy people still use it that's why. Including a server I want to use MC on.
The php4 version will use it's own custom database system, only the code that has to be changed will be changed or rewritten as needed.
Also I want to release a Mac OS X package and so it needs to be php4 compatible for that.

The php4 version will be maintained as a branch beside the main head. It will probably slip back a release or two sometimes just to provoke people to upgrade to php5.

So anyway the main thing that needs to be done is write docs. My next post will hopefully be announcing it's release.

Trying to buy a Laptop

I'm trying to buy an old used laptop computer that still works good. The only requirements are:

1. It works well enough.
2. Has at least 64MB RAM. 128MB is preferred.
3. Has 300Mhz or greater x86 processor.
4. Has audio line-in/out.
5. A bootable CD-ROM drive.
6. Some kind of network capability.

The only thing I want it for is recording audio digitally in other locations and testing my software on another platform.
I don't care how heavy it is or how ugly it is.

So I've been watching Ebay closely, but can't seem to have the guts to place a high enough bid on anything.
I don't even care if it has no OS installed. I'll be replacing it anyway with Linux.

Just thought I'd post this here in case somebody reading this has an offer to make ;) Or some tips on where to get one cheap.