Jeremy Gaither

Editorial vs Byword and Workflow for WordPress Writing v2017–05–29–0832

I’ve been comparing byword and editorial. This is a test. In the event of a real post, info would go here… trying to edit an existing post via Byword and Workflow… I’m leaving the broken versions in the blog for my reference.

Byword tests

I got an error trying to connect Byword directly, need to see if I can search their help text later. It is probably my extra login security options and plugins, keeping me safe from the bad hackers.

Add Workflow

So I’m trying to write a workflow action. That has a visual programming style that isn’t horrible (as a developer)… let’s try it. Here’s a link to my first attempt: my post to WordPress Workflow

Needs More Work

For some reason the bullet list is out-denting in my theme. Needs more tabs.

• The Workflow was expecting the first line to be the title. Byword didn’t pass the file name as the first line like it has before.
  • I can work around the title/file name thing.
• It also only passed the text, and did not upload the photos.
  • Images would be a nice to have.
• It created a new entry instead of updating an existing entry, and did something odd when it saw a slash W for some reason:

Post by sharing via email

Trying out the jet pack post by email feature… the markdown and HTML options don’t include the images.

Buggy Plugin?

I had a plugin to fix http/https mixed content. It would strip http:// and https:// in an attempt to get all links to start with // instead. I had another plugin that did more ssl stuff and they might have conflicted enough to break API post. Testing out again…

It appears removing the extra ssl plugin fixed Byword:

Oddly, I have to upload each resource manually first. It gives me a list and it is a simple click, but it would be nicer if it were automated.

Wish List

There’s no extra Workflow plugins for Byword like there are for Editorial, and no version support beyond what Dropbox gives me (no git support like I’d prefer). However for distraction free writing, it now just works.

Editorial

This is a slick editor that supports some live markdown preview and TaskPaper markdown. However, don’t see an option to insert pics. It has an embedded Python scripting engine for workflows. I’ll need to figure that out and how to use it to upload photos, if possible, for a halfway decent comparison.

New version of Terraform is out now…

Today we are pleased to announce the release of Terraform 0.9.6. This is mostly a maintenance release, but also includes several improvements and bug fixes.

Source: Product Update: Terraform 0.9.6

This is probably fairly normal, but also disturbing. I only recently relaunched this site, but WordPress is a highly targeted app. It makes me wonder how bad the security is these days without the extra security plugins…

This is an interesting article looking at desktop browsers. I’d be curious for a similar comparison for mobile browsers and operating systems. Mobile may have disrupted the browsers a bit, but I still use my laptop and mobile browser a lot too. Apps are a fair share of my mobile use, but I’m driven mostly by platforms using a mobile-first or at least API-driven parallel approach. I know quite a few people that are using mobile-only over 95% of the time. I’m getting that way, unless I have to write code…

What is maybe most important are the developer tools and developer testing. The Chrome developer tools are built-in, and surpassed IE and native Firefox developer tools at the time. This is especially important for JavaScript debugging, which used to be horrible for Internet Explorer. Several Firefox plugins improved the situation, but they weren’t native enough. Combined with users and developers liking isolating buggy web apps into their own processes, developers started using Chrome for development and later testing in other browsers. With mobile use rising, I think developers need to go beyond responsive design and design/test for mobile at the same time as desktop.

There are also several tools and services available to assist with cross-browser testing. BrowserSync and BrowserStack come to mind. Testing older versions of browsers is hard with modern auto-updating browsers, and the inability to install multiple versions of IE and Edge. Those browsers don’t even run on macOS unless you’re using a VM. The modern.ie site has basic IE/Edge testing VM’s for free, but it is an extra pain for developers and testers.

Since many developers have adopted Mac as their default developer workstation, they’re rarely targeting IE and Edge unless required by the business. Safari is no longer available on Windows either. Services like BrowserStack are good but not free, and VM’s can consume a lot of storage and compute resources. Chrome runs fairly consistently across operating systems and between desktop and mobile. It is a good market to target.

However, for developers too young to remember how badly Microsoft tried to segment the internet and browser market with their proprietary extensions, they should do some history research. It would probably make a good long article. They did the same with Java, and it all but killed Java on the desktop. Preserving competition is important, and developer choice plays a huge part in that preservation. Without healthy competition and multiple options, developers and users run the risk of getting locked into the whims of the dominant platform.

Chrome won | Andreas Gal

https://andreasgal.com/2017/05/25/chrome-won/