Drupal is Part of the Problem

Should Drupal move to PHP 5?

In one word: absolutely.

In one sentence: if we don't, the drupal project will die along with PHP.

My friends, PHP is dying. Every day, the best programmers are moving to, faster, better constructed, more powerful languages such as python and ruby. The developers of PHP have been aware of this for some time. That's why they released PHP 5*. 

A Morbidly Drunk Christopher Hitchens on the Daily Show

Christopher Hitchens teaches us all some very important lessons on last night's Daily Show:
1. There is a time and place for being smashed. A 7 minute interview with Jon Stewart is not one of them.
2. If you do choose to be smashed during your interview, you'd probably be wise to avoid subjects such as "why relgion is the root of all evil".
3. Do yourself a favor: Next time you feel attractive while drunk, think of Hitchens in this interview.

Let Template.php Eat Static

 My arch-nemisis is overly complex logic in template.php and page.tpl.php files. It seems to me that when a drupal codebase becomes brittle and unmaintainable, the culprit is usually going to be hundreds of conditional lines of php code in a template file. You've probably seen code like this before:

THEMES/SPAGETTI_MONSTER/TEMPLATE.PHP

Drupal Wonders: "Where's the Love?"

How much money have you made from Drupal? Now that we have a drupal association, its a question I want you to consider when you make your first donation. Drupal has shown you a lot of love over the years. I hope you can show some love back.

You really have no excuse.

At SXSW Interactive

Just a note that I'll be at SXSW Interactive today and tomorrow... but not Monday and Tuesday 9-5pm since I actually have to do work next week. If you wanna meet up, you'll probably find me with Kris Krug, and Robert Scales. Contact me if you want to meet up.

Going Global in Drupal: Too good to be true?

There is a timeless law that every serious blogger needs to remember. As this law doesn't seem to have a name yet, I'm naming it Gillmor's law , after Dan Gillmor. Roughly stated, the law is:

"Your readers know more than you do."

I've discovered a solution to a common drupal programing problem: how to avoid excessively running something along the lines of "$node = node_load(arg(1));" in hooks or functions that don't have node data available to them.

The solution was so easy, and had so many different uses in different contexts that I'm nervous, and know that I must have done something idiotic. Thats where you, my dear reader, come in[1].

CCK is Dangerously Sexy in Drupal 5.0

CCK no longer neuters nodes.  To clear the record, CCK is drupal's most kick ass contributed module, and I recommend it in just about any situation and enviroment.

My reasoning for this 180 degree reversal in opinion are firstly two new modules included in cck:

content_copy.module -- this module allows you to import/export CCK node types from installation to installation. Using drupal_macro() (found in the devel.module), or drupal_execute(), one could theoretically automate these imports in .install file. I know its possible, but I haven'yet completely worked out some details... (namely, that CCK node tables don't appear to exist at the moment drupal_execute, or macro is executed). maybe I'm just an idiot... I don't know....

How to Make Square Corners with CSS

Everyone knows that square corners are the new rounded corners. Matthew Inman -- the greatest champion of semantically correct markup, ever -- is your guide to a pardise of breaktaking semantic squareness[2]. And in just 84[1] easy steps! Read the his article. You'll be a better web programmer. Notes: 1. Be sure to follow steps 12-83 closely. 2. The best satire is in the comment thread about tables vs. divs[1] Meta note: 1. Er, wait, i think these guys aren't part of the joke....

Molly Ivins (1944-2007)

  “I dearly love the state of Texas, but I consider that a harmless perversion on my part, and discuss it only with consenting adults.” -- Molly Ivins Words can't convey how much I'll miss her.

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