{"id":544,"date":"2005-02-11T09:26:02","date_gmt":"2005-02-11T07:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/?p=544"},"modified":"2007-08-30T17:31:11","modified_gmt":"2007-08-30T15:31:11","slug":"wordpress-15-gamma-review-for-non-professional-coders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2005\/02\/11\/wordpress-15-gamma-review-for-non-professional-coders\/","title":{"rendered":"wordpress 1.5 gamma review for non-professional coders"},"content":{"rendered":"

OK, so where mark<\/a> is a coder who dabbles in design, I’m an artist (and sometimes designer) who dabbles in code. We actually agree on most things in our review, but might be finding them in different ways.<\/p>\n

First off, the interface<\/strong>: I love the new dashboard. It’s nice to have stats and news right up front in the admin. The new architecture took a minor amount of getting used to, but I think the whole thing is pretty hot. Admittedly, I’m a little disappointed that my quicktags have managed to disappear on safari – if wordpress<\/a> wants stubborn mac-heads like me to use their ware, they’ve got to fix that bug! On the other hand, when I switched to Firefox<\/a> to see what was up, I was really impressed with the new sidebar. Still, old habits die hard, and altho I know most coders would kill me for saying it, I want the option of staying with safari (am writing in it right now, sans-quicktags).<\/p>\n

Given that I’ve got a whole site built around my blog, I also wouldn’t mind a bit more documentation on “write page” functionality – what it will do and how it works – before I dive in and start changing my site’s architecture. Maybe a link to some samples directly from the page? Maybe I am just a wuss. I do think the option is nice, and mark says it’s pretty easy<\/a>, so I’ll take his word for it ;)<\/p>\n

plug-ins and hacks<\/strong>: this is infinitely easier. Granted, I downloaded dr dave’s<\/a> plug in manager<\/a> (not a wordpress<\/a> product, but an external plug that takes advantage of some if its new features), and the only plugins that seemed to install without hassle were his (spam karma<\/a> is great – I was using a captcha until now, but this product also stops trackbacks!), whereas others would not work when installed, and I could not uninstall through the interface, despite that I know I’ve got everything set up right. Still, just using ftp and the dashboard, I managed to get spell checks, back ups and various other plugs installed without having to change ANY of my template files – just upload, and hit the on<\/em> button. Pretty hot.<\/p>\n

themes<\/strong>: as promised, the best new thing about wordpress<\/a>. I was shocked at how easy it was to turn my old template into a usable theme, and will be distributing it on my blog’s 2nd birthday (the 20th of feb, 2005 – to be called “NAN”), complete with instructions on how to replace my menu with your own (flash, image, whatever). Do you think I should offer it in a plain white as well as the yellow I currently have? Anyhow, themes are super<\/em> easy to change (just a click), and, if you are not a coder, also easy to install. Just upload (be sure to use ASCII ftp – it gets all funky if you transfer as raw data) and click to change. I’m not really a professional coder, and had to spend 2-3 days making my original template do what I wanted when I first switched from blogger<\/a> to WordPress<\/a>. This took all of 5 minutes to adapt to the new 1.5.<\/p>\n

Obviously, there are still a lot of bugs that need to be worked out, but these seem to mostly be behind the interface, which is OK by me. I’m really happy with it, and how easy it is to use (even without the quicktags – it’s like a refresher on basic html every day!). They seem to have gotten some cleaner code from last time around, and fixed a few things I had noted at other times (like some odd characters in the atom feed).<\/p>\n

Now I just have to beg some of the stragglers whose plug-ins I was using to update their code and make it work with the new wordpress… (I miss my wp-email’s “email this post” feature.)<\/p>\n

So, there it is. I took the plunge and installed the gamma before it was an official release. Big step for me. And I’m glad I did. Perhaps with themes, wordpress<\/a> will become the new iMac – what color is your blog?
\n(I’ve got one kubrick, one NAN, and am working on a Classic – OLD’S COOL!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OK, so where mark is a coder who dabbles in design, I’m an artist (and sometimes designer) who dabbles in code. We actually agree on most things in our review, but might be finding them in different ways. First off, the interface: I love the new dashboard. It’s nice to have stats and news right […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-and-tech","category-technology","category-uncategorical"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9blZT-8M","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":552,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2005\/02\/20\/wordpress-theme-for-wordpress-15-nan\/","url_meta":{"origin":544,"position":0},"title":"wordpress theme for wordpress 1.5: NAN","author":"nathaniel","date":"20 February 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"the NAN wordpress theme for wordpress 2.0 - free!","rel":"","context":"In "art and tech"","block_context":{"text":"art and tech","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art-and-tech\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1233,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2006\/06\/24\/more-from-rio\/","url_meta":{"origin":544,"position":1},"title":"More from Rio","author":"nathaniel","date":"24 June 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Over in Rio, things are crazy and wonderful. What an inspired group of artists, educators, coders, lawyers, activists, musicians, etc, etc, and so forth. I think Jenny Toomey said it best just minutes ago (paraphrase): \"we don't complain about the structures that we don't like, we build structures that we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1594,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/04\/openframeworks-i-am-adopted\/","url_meta":{"origin":544,"position":2},"title":"openframeworks: i am adopted","author":"nathaniel","date":"04 March 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Joel and Dave playing with openframeworks and arduino This weekend I went and took a 2-day workshop on openframeworks with Zach Lieberman and Theo Watson - the class was mostly a bunch of cool designers and artists from London - orgnanized by tinker.it at the Paddington Arts Center. These are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"joel and dave playing with openframeworks and arduino","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wiki.openframeworks.cc\/images\/6\/6c\/Facetracker.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1545,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2007\/10\/22\/new-web-site-wordpress-as-cms-portfolio\/","url_meta":{"origin":544,"position":3},"title":"new web site: wordpress as CMS \/ Portfolio","author":"nathaniel","date":"22 October 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"If you haven't noticed, my main site has had a massive overhaul, with which the royal 'we' are very pleased. Besides the new design, some new work and texts have been added in the upgrade process, most notably the digital and traditional prints I did at the Frans Masereel Centre\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1464,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2007\/05\/09\/catch-up-links-tidbits-etc\/","url_meta":{"origin":544,"position":4},"title":"catch-up, links, tidbits, etc","author":"nathaniel","date":"09 May 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Hey All: Been in Wales at this conference over the last 5 days or so, and lots has happened in the world since then, so this'll be a kind of ranty catch-up of random and, depending on who you are and what you like, potentially unimportant things. Nicole and my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1316,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2006\/09\/12\/va-various-art-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":544,"position":5},"title":"v\/a (various art) (updated below)","author":"nathaniel","date":"12 September 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Sorry for the lack of posting lately, everybody. As promised a few weeks ago, things are crazy with the big move, and finishing up all the things I need do here in Joburg. It looks like, however, I may have a couple of takers for my blog, which means Joburg\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"jeremy wafer @ sasol wax (highlighted by gerhard marx)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.flickr.com\/88\/241278660_8e4dfed23a_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}