Frequently Anticipated Question:
How is the Gruts website put together?
There now follows some nerdy, colophonic information:
HTML Generation
The HTML for early versions of this website was created using Softquad's HoTMetaL Pro editor. Unlike many HTML editors, it didn't mess up the code I had written, and it allowed me to view it in various way, including raw HTML—making it a great way to learn HTML.
Nowadays, the site is maintained the hard way (or, as I prefer to think of it, the easy way) using a text editor: the wonderful Textpad. Many of the pages (including this one) are now written in PHP, which I have used to kludge together a simple Content Management System. This has enabled me to separate page content from page formatting, making it a doddle to maintain. I might convert it all to a proper database one day, but why complicate matters?
Most of the site is now formatted without recourse to the much-maligned HTML <TABLE> tag, although I haven't bothered to change some of the older pages. I am also gradually phasing out my occasional use of JavaScript. (I haven't caught the AJAX bug yet—it looks too much like hard work to me.)
Styling
Some of the site's use of cascading style sheets (CSS) is pretty messy, but I'm gradually tidying it up.
Images
Most images that haven't been culled from elsewhere on the Internet (ahem) are captured on a cheap and nasty flatbed scanner, a CanoScan 2700F slide and negative scanner, my Canon Powershot S50 digital camera, or my extremely sexy and fabulous Canon EOS 350D digital SLR. They are edited for presentation on the web using a pre-Corel-takeover version of Paint Shop Pro.
Drafting
Much Gruts content is was drafted on my trusty, old Psion Series 5mx organiser. I will be was devastated when she finally gives gave up the ghost [sniff]. Ideas for the site are often jotted down in my always-to-hand Moleskine™ notebook. Moleskines are the new black.
Hosting
Gruts is hosted by Clara.Net. They're not exactly cheap, but they are very reliable, and they don't mess you about.
Fuel
Gruts is fuelled by Taylor's of Harrowgate Yorkshire Tea, assorted Australian red wines, and Laphroaig single malt whisky—Scotland's greatest contribution to civilisation.
