I’ve always loved the idea of writing in outlines. My first exposure to them was with More on the Macintosh way back in the day. Ever since then, I always look at whatever tool I’m using to see if it understands outlining in any sort of reasonable way. None of them ever do.

I’ve done various things to maintain this blog over the years, bought various pieces of software, written some of my own. None of it has been entirely satisfying.

However, now I’m playing with the OPML editor from Dave Winer. Yup…. it’s a repackaged Frontier/Radio. Yup, it’s not what you’d call pretty by today’s standards, but it is easily more useful than just about any piece of blogging software I’ve used yet. Oh, it’ll take a bit of programming for me to make it exactly the way I want it to be, but the fact that I can change the way it behaves myself is a ***huge*** bonus.

I’m trying to find some of my old favorite Frontier scripts and can’t. Specifically, docRenderer, HALO, and metaRenderer. They must exist out there in the ether somewhere! Or, I’ll have to write a simple version myself… it should be THAT hard [[:-)]].
####Modified WordPress.root

OK… I’ve modified the renderer in wordpress.root to act more like a document renderer. This will get me started. Now, if an outline headline contains children, it is rendered as an html header (based on the level it is in the outline).

What does this mean practically? OK… the headline above “Modified WordPress.root” is a subheadline in the article, and the text for that subhead is indented on further level underneath it. It’s a very natural way to write and organize thoughts. By combining this with good use of cascading style sheets, the page can be presented in a very document-like way.

Hmmm…. I wonder why categories don’t work properly.

Well, I decided to give it a try this morning. It was a little brisk, but not too bad. It was quite nice filling the tank though… just $2.85… should last me all week!

Well, this is it. My last 4 days at my current job. I’m feeling both excited and sad. I spent a year here, and it hardly feels like enough time to really come to terms with the job itself. But life, as they say, goes on.

Time to start cleaning the office.