About Me

PBX My name is Paul Bissex, and e-scribe.com is my consulting business. I build web applications using as much open source software as possible. From September to June I teach web design and other important non-photographic professional skills to photographers. In the '90s I wrote technology commentary and reviews for magazines, newspapers, and web publications, including Wired, Salon.com, FamilyPC, the late lamented Web Review, and the Chicago Tribune. Feel free to email me.

Book Project

I'm co-authoring a book, "Python Web Development with Django", with Jeff Forcier and Wesley Chun. It will be published by Prentice Hall in July 2008, but is available for pre-ordering on Amazon now.

Colophon

This site is built on a fresh trunk checkout of Django, running on Python 2.5.1, served by Apache and mod_python. The database is SQLite. The operating system is FreeBSD, on a VPS hosted at Johncompanies.com. Comment-spam protection by Akismet. Vintage topo imagery from the Maptech archive.

Pile o'Tags

Stuff I Use

Akismet, del.icio.us, Django, dpaste.com, Emacs, FreeBSD, Freenode, jQuery, LaunchBar, MacPorts, Markdown, Mercurial, OS X, Postfix, Python, SQLite, Subversion, TextMate, Trac, Ubuntu Linux, wmii

(Finally!)

Web developer evolution

After the frameworks post I kept thinking about this. Of course any generalizations I make are heavily colored by my own direct experience, but the progression seems to go along these lines:

Make static web pages.
Make modular pages using simple includes (in SSI, PHP, ASP, or what have you).
Make pages with more involved functionality (form submissions to database, basic CRUD).
Get sick of re-building dynamic stuff for every project; write your own kinda portable library or framework.
Get sick of maintaining your own framework, then:
(a) find an existing framework that fits your philosophy and has support (commercial or open source community); use that. -- OR -- (b) Start an open source project to build the ultimate dream framework, then:
(a) Release it to great acclaim -- OR -- (b) Watch it wallow in obscurity; return to step 6.

I'm sure there are further steps in the chain, such as getting sick of web development altogether and moving to Costa Rica to start a solar-powered commune, but I haven't gotten there yet.

Sunday, May 21st, 2006
fun + web development + web frameworks