echo!

So, what does powered by echo! mean?

Quite simply, echo! is the system that allows me to manage my site with ease from anywhere directly from the site itself.

Can others use echo!?

Not yet - but eventually. That is the plan anyway. I hope that I am able to make some progress on this before too long, but I have been saying that for a while. Read from that what will. I apologize that I don’t have more to show for myself.

echo! Progress

I will no longer be reporting my progress or status of echo on this website. It will be reported in the future on my echo website. This website doesn’t yet exist, so you are just going to have to keep your pants on for the time being. :P

Why use something like this?

I have been building web sites for a long time. Two things that stand out in my mind as being important to a site and usually difficult to manage are uniformity and maintainance. This is what echo! does for me. First it applies a consistent look and feel to each of the pages in my site and allows me to modify this easily. Second, it allows me to add new content and/or change the old content without even touching a file.

Why call it echo!?

Well, a couple of reasons. First of all, it was written using PHP, and the command to print the content to the browser in PHP is called echo. Secondly, the word echo also seemed to tie in with the fact that I make music and lastly, to add more emphasis, I added an exclaimation mark! :)

CREDITS

The following tools and languages were used to make echo possible.

PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor)

This easy to use language is perfectly suited to do interactive web applications such as echo! Providing a simple database connectivity function set and hundreds of other simple yet powerful functions, PHP is my language of choice for all my web application and simple scripting needs.

MySQL Database Management System

The free unix database system that is becoming increasingly popular as a major contender in the DBMS world. MySQL handles many useful data types as well as supporting a number of useful SQL functions that make it easier to access and store exactly what you need.

skEdit / SubEthaEdit

Emacs

Since I have started using many non-Windows computers - both Mas OSX and Linux - I have had to find an alternative to UltraEdit. Emacs fit this bill for a while. Emacs was surprisingly easy for me to learn and once I did I was flying about managing serveral files at once and all with out my mouse. Sexy times.