This site will track goals, development notes and pretty much anything related to Cameron's Thoughts 3.0. Cameron's Thoughts 3.0 is the next generation code base that my site, cbulock.com will be based on.
I started up the actual thought processes for the redesign on Jan 13, 2008.
I built a decent codebase and had a functional site after that. I wasn't happy with the design however and scrapped it. Using some of the concepts I had come up with, I started rewriting the software yet again. The code is how being hosted on Github with the first commits uploaded on Jan 04, 2010.
As of Feb 25, 2010, I now have some of the base API methods written, and I have a JSON wrapper for the API. Using that, I have a tool that I can test data against the API.
There's a detailed history on Cameron's Thoughts 2.0 changes that happened after it was released at Cameron's Thoughts - About This Site.
Basically, I first started Cameron's Thoughts as a default install of Movable Type on June 22, 2003. There was a number of changes made to the stylesheet and templates, but that was about it. I then decided to rewrite all the stylesheets and templates from scratch.
Thus, Cameron's Thoughts 2.0 was born. It was about 9 months of work total. The first few months were basically total research. This was research into how to properly code to produce 100% valid XHTML, full accessibility and also for search engine optimization. Really, if you do the first two properly, the third one pretty much falls into place. I also had to really learn CSS as I only had limited understanding of it at that point. On June 21, 2005, a day before the two year anniversary of my site, Cameron's Thoughts 2.0 was launched. This was an exciting day for me as it was the completion of a number of months of hard work. Plus, I actually made a deadline I set for myself. Since the release of Cameron's Thoughts 2.0, I have become very strong at coding with PHP. The initial Cameron's Thoughts 2.0 code had some PHP, but it was limited. I've released numerous enhancements since, including a fully database backed image system, a user/authentication system, and moved the comments off of Movable Type and onto my own code. There are tons of other things also added since then, and the site is mostly written in PHP now.
Coding for Cameron's Thoughts 2.0 started in 2004 and fully completed my dream of what I wanted back then. Six years have since past and the site does not seem perfect as it once did and doesn't live up to my current standards.
Speed is a major issue with the current site. On a entry page, it takes an average of 0.93 seconds for the page to load. This may not seem like a lot, but most other sites will average under 0.2 seconds. Basically, I feel it's noticeable enough and makes the site feel sluggish on a high speed connection. I've spent a lot of time optimizing code where I've seen potential to improve things, but from what I can tell, the problem is with the core design of the site and my current efforts have been fruitless.
At this point, the code feels hacked together. There is limited organization. Every time a new system is added to the site, it's mostly just been hacked into the current code. The authentication system is a prime example. It's one of those things that the site should be designed around, instead it was place on top of everything else. I feel it's well integrated at this point, but the back of my mind tells me that there is got to be some problem somewhere in the implementation that I'm not seeing as nothing else was coded with it in mind.
The site doesn't utilize any modern site features such as Ajax. And adding these features on would be an immense project.
Here are the basic goals that I have lined up for Cameron's Thoughts 3.0. I will add more detail in the future.