NanoBlogger

Hi folks!

I finally made the switch to Subversion. With instructions provided by SF.net, I exported my CVS repository and converted it to an SVN dump suitable for import. Since I saw no errors and was careful to remove CVSROOT, I made the error in assuming that the import would go without a hitch. After about a few days of waiting on tech support they gave me the information I needed to hear. The problem was on my end. Of course that "problem" was with all my CVS tags. Not surprising, seeing how they mention that as one of the most common problems that arises when switching from CVS to Subversion. So, I took the road most traveled and left those tags behind.

All of this time spent around my code, lead me to tinkering, which lead to some changes. It's still fun to work on, even if I really should be working on more important things. So, if you're feeling frisky check out the new code! I'm running a Subversion shop now, baby!

You don't have to wait for the entire update process to finish before you can preview your work. Use the draft and make-page actions to create an intermediate preview of your work.

1. Create the new entry or article with draft.

   nb draft preview.txt
   
   

2. Create the preview with make-page.

   nb make-page preview.txt preview.html
   
   

3. When you're satisfied with the preview, initiate the update sequence.

   for an entry:

   nb file preview.txt add
   
   

   for an article (from the articles directory):

   nb query main update
   
   

Did you know that NanoBlogger can multitask?

1. Apply changes immediately after changing configuration.

   nb configure query all update
   
   

2. Edit a new article and have it generated immediately.

   nb draft [blog_dir]articles/example.txt query main update
   
   

3. Publish changes immediately after an edit or delete action.

   nb edit 1 publish
   nb delete 1 publish
   
   

4. Combining preview and publish (when "add" is not invoked).

   nb edit 1 preview publish
   nb draft [blog_dir]articles/example.txt query main update preview publish
   
   

Some notes:

• As of this writing, both "preview" and "publish" are already ran automatically whenever the "add" action is invoked.
• You can use the "--interactive 0" option to prevent NanoBlogger from stopping and asking a lot of questions.

Thanks for all the nice comments in support of the project. After reading through some of the comments, I realize that I have not explained myself all that well. I've been very busy pursuing career goals of late and have not been able to respond to every comment or email, but please don't think that NB is subject to bit rot. Perhaps, instead, I should have said that I'm putting the project on hold for an indefinite time, but at the time, I was feeling rather envious of vee's simplicity. I'd agree now that my comparison was unfair in light of all the time and work that I and others have put into this project. NB for the most part has remained modular in terms of functionality. So, if someone wanted to they could strip the code down to it's bare essentials and still have a simple weblogging tool.

If and when I have time, I will be working on rewriting CSS, redesigning the layout, and dealing with bug reports. Seeing how these tasks are currently low priority for me, I was thinking now might be a good time for anyone that wants to join the project to get involved and keep it moving forward. Just drop me a line if you're interested and I'll be happy to set you up.

Best Regards!

Recently I came across this little gem, vii, it's a simple command line blog tool written in bourne shell. It reminded me of MicroBlogger, which inspired me to write NanoBlogger. It also reminded me of why I named my project the way I did, but NanoBlogger's not so nano anymore. With a great project like vii in development I'm tempted to abandon development of NB. As vii matures, my itch for a better command line blog tool may be finally alleviated. From now on, I think I'll just focus on bug fixes.

update: I even found an article from the developer of vii that shares my sentiment about NB.

update: vii has been renamed to vee.