When I wrote my first web page 13 years ago, I did it by “viewing source” on some pages I visited. My nephew set me up with Fetch, an ftp client that would run on the Mac I owned at the time. After a lot of trial and error, I figured out the basics of coding html and organizing a small site, and I was hooked.

In short order, I began using some rudimentary programs to assist with the coding. The WYSIWYG editors hadn’t arrived yet, and even when they did I found that I was often able to produce a superior product by working with just the code.

Several years ago I moved to a new hosting service, Bluehost. My old service, which will go unnamed, was too expensive and provided no web interface to assist with site management. Bluehost offered the excellent cPanel as well as far more space and bandwidth, for about 1/3 the cost of my old hosting service. They also offered the ability to install many useful scripts/apps using Fantastico, which eliminated the need to configure and install them myself. About a year ago, they began to offer installation of select apps using Simple Scripts.

This summer I dove in and installed WordPress using Simple Scripts. The experience has been an eye-opener. From the simplicity of having the MySQL backend configured for me, to the availability of so many plug-ins and themes, I see that the web is not what it once was. WordPress and many other web applications are high-end, professional software. Updates and backups are easily accomplished. Rather than spending days configuring and installing cgi scripts, I can instead invest my time on improving content and dabbling with new scripts.

In many ways, this summer has been every bit as revolutionary for me as that summer thirteen years ago. One no longer needs to be a code warrior to make use of these tools (but it helps!)