Straight Edge Life

I’m working on a major redesign of the Pixenter Stock Photo Engine. This is the fourth major redesign of the Pixenter system and my 11th or 12th major project overall. It’s a bit strange to think of how much time I’ve spent and how much I’ve learned in that time about how to build database driven websites. But building isn’t really all that impressive. As I’m taking a 10,000 foot view of Pixenter I’m trying to design it, to architecturally design the system to perform elegantly and flexibly. It’s different than just sitting down and making things happen with code. With a few years practice anybody can do a good job of coding a complex database driven site. And for all that I do know about building sites (which really isn’t that much) I am an toddler when it comes to architecture. I think about guys like Duncan Cameron, my hero and master Lasso developer, and the way he can apply an intelligent design to programming (see dCore) and it just blows me away. It’s the difference between a craftsman and an artist. One has a skill, the other knows how to use skill to apply meaning and purpose to his work. And it’s not that I don’t know the purpose of Pixenter. I do. I know exactly what it’s supposed to do… it’s just a matter of seeing the design in my head, on paper, and finally in code. It’s the next level of programming. I’m glad to be breaking into it. Necessity is the mother of invention, right? Truth is, this time I have to build Pixenter, right, really right… And so an architect I become.