Category: Articles (Page 242 of 258)

Personal opinions and how-to’s that I’ve written both here and as contributions to other blogs.

Startbox WordPress and View Page Templates

February 4, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

One of the things that I love about the open source community is not only how others can contribute to your work to create a better product, but how your work can be folded into someone else’s work.

Last week, Brian Richards (who works on Startbox WordPress) tweeted me:

@tommcfarlin I really want to appropriate this page template column idea (http://t.co/3ox9IcCv) directly into @wpstartbox. May I?

— Brian Richards (@rzen) January 31, 2013

And I was more than happy to oblige.

This whole short exchange brought up several aspects of open source software that I really appreciate.

Apps or Programs?

February 4, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

As with practically anyone who considers themselves a digital native, I dig using Twitter. One of the things I love the most is seeing various people’s opinions on many things (not everything, but I digress), especially when it’s related to an interest of my own.

Last week, Baratunde tweeted the following:

https://twitter.com/baratunde/status/296319290263629825

Though I respect the opinion, and definitely get where he’s coming from – probably more than I’m going to convey in this post – I disagree with the sentiment.

Open Source Profit Sharing: How Do You Do It?

January 31, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

Lately, one of the questions that I find myself wrestling with is what’s considered respectful and acceptable for charging for support or accepting donations for open source plugins?

Or, more simply, what’s an ideal model for open source profit sharing when you’ve received contributions to open source plugins?

Why (And How!) To Use A WordPress Boilerplate

January 30, 2013 / Tom

For those of who you have been reading this blog for a while (thanks, by the way), you know that I work to maintain the WordPress Plugin Boilerplate and the WordPress Widget Boilerplate along with a growing community of developers.

Despite the fact that I’ve promoted them here on the blog, called for others to get involved, and so on, I’ve never actually given a proper tutorial on how to use them to get started in your projects.

So in my lastest series on Envato, I’m making a case for why the matter and how to use them.

Software Craftsmanship: Why This Matters For WordPress

January 30, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

Earlier this week, I had a fun discussion with Dave Donaldson of Max Foundry about software craftsmanship.

I think it’s worth reading the quick Twitter discussion, but I want to be clear that I mention Dave because the respect him as a developer, and he was being a bit facetious in his comments.

Bottom line, Twitter’s not the point of this post – it’s simply setting the stage.

I’ve written before about WordPress Craftsmanship which generally covers my thoughts on the entire process, but I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned my thoughts on software craftsmanship as a whole and why I think it matters in WordPress.

As such, I thought this may be a good opportunity to do so.

Startbox WordPress and View Page Templates

Apps or Programs?

Open Source Profit Sharing: How Do You Do It?

Why (And How!) To Use A WordPress Boilerplate

Software Craftsmanship: Why This Matters For WordPress

Current Projects