Python 101: BYOB (Build your own Blog)

Erik van Brakel — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:43:34 GMT

In my setup I said I was going to learn Python, and at the same time dive into the world of CQRS. After getting my feet wet a little bit, I decided to go with something completely different. I present to you: BYOB, the Python edition! I have to be honest and I’ll mention straight away that this is NOT my own idea. I borrowed it from the honorable Rob Conery, who at a certain time last year mentioned that it’s a good idea for EVERY serious developer to build his own blog. He gives a nice summary of the reasons why:

It’s the perfect app for a geek who wants a blog to build – they’re the perfect domain experts
It’s easy (for the most part) but gets harder and harder the farther in your dive
It’s ubiquitous. What a perfect interview topic: “I’d love to see how you handled asynchronous pings to Technorati and – oh – do you have a POP feature? Also – did you use MetaWeblog or Wordpress?”
It’s your calling card. If your blog rocks – likely you do too. If it sucks and it’s slow – well…
It’s a great way to learn a language. Want to try out ASP.NET MVC? Compare the LOC and features to your Webforms blog – then try Rails…
Luke did it – and that’s good enough for me

If you’re wondering about rule number 6: His reasoning is that if Luke (Skywalker) had to build his own lightsaber, developers should build their own blog.

So I am. I will keep source code on Github. I will try to copy the look and feel of my current blog (this one), with similar features. Basically:

Index page with the last <x> articles, first paragraph. Browsable.
Detail page, showing the full article and comments (possibly powered by disqus).
Archive by month. Works in a similar fashion as the index page.
Archive by tag. Works in a similar fashion as the index page.
Profile page. Basically a static page with a nice picture of me and some info.
Ability to use Windows Live Writer (love you!) to publish my blog.

What I won’t do (yet):

Theming support.
Multi language support.
Multi blog support.
Pingback detection and what not.
Sharing links. Who shares my articles anyway :-(
Web based administration panel. I don’t NEED to do that, I only publish via Live Writer.

For now, I am off to github to create a repository for my new blog: Sir Blogalot!

byob

Python 101: BYOB (Build your own Blog)