Done!

I just moved my blog from my LiveJournal account to a local blosxom installation. I exported the data from my LiveJournal account (too bad that goes through a POST form that only works when logged in, makes it harder to automate this), hacked up a little ruby script to transform the data in the XML files from that export into the format blosxom expects (that is, plain text file with the subject on the first line, and the date in the filesystem metadata. No, it's not fit for publishing), and created my own local 'php' flavour so that the blog would blend in with the rest of my website, which uses PHP to make everything look the same way, and for some other things. Next, I put everything in a new subversion repository, and created a post-commit hook to update the pages. There, it works. No, I didn't consider using the CGI script -- postprocessing CGI output with PHP, even if possible (which I don't think it is, but one never knows how crazy some people are) doesn't sound like a particularly appealing idea to me. I could've gone for an iframe, but let's not push it.

While I was at it, I fixed up the CSS chooser I wanted to do for a while. It was there, but it didn't work because I made a stupid mistake; and its class in the stylesheets didn't work yet either. Now they do.

In case you were wondering why I moved away from LiveJournal, there's a few reasons:

• First, I like that feature blosxom has which allows you to categorize stuff. I can now blog in Dutch should I ever want to, without bothering planet readers.
• Second, I was getting fed up with the fact that LJ's "don't auto-layout" option is switched off by default, that it requires you to go to the "advanced options", and that (AFAICS) there is no way to make it the default on a per-account basis. It had bitten me once too many.
• Third, logjam allows for previewing an entry, but Debian's logjam package does not (it's compiled without that support). Which sucks.
• Finally, having to use a client or a browser to blog, instead of just a simple editor, is silly IMAO. This is way easier.