The Perambulator

This is my obligatory gripe about the machine post. I’ll do it once and then I’ll be done with it and I’ll go read the book.

Trying to wrap my mind around wordpress reminds me of the first time I saw a linux directory. What was a /bin or a /var or even the /usr directory? And why were the slashes pointing the wrong way? So I look around the WP directories and there are a few css in a couple locations and many php files everywhere. I have heard of css but my web building knowledge is barely enough to pull off an href without having to look it up. The css is relatively easy, define style. The php instructs the document, based on the markup, what to do with the styles. Logical.

So I install and activate a couple of plugins… no problem. Then I find the ultimate, a plugin to display custom fields for my book reviews. Great. Install, and it doesn’t work. The easy solution of course, visit developers website and search the internet. And there is the solution in multiple locations all with the code to insert… but to insert where? The locations they hint at don’t work. Why wouldn’t any of these sites say “insert this line in your post-template.php file here, put the definitions in that file there.”

I am resigned now to learning how to make and where to put a <?php if in (category(x)) type of command and styles to show additional custom fields for my book reviews. In other words, write the plugin myself.

For that matter, the darn codex plugin page should have a rating mechanism to tell me, the guy who just wants to blog, whether the add-on installs painlessly or not.