Waiting patiently for the new Blogger beta

I still remember back when I first heard that Google was buying Pyra/Blogger. Seems like ages ago. It's about time we saw more integration between Blogger and Google's other products, both in terms of merging the user accounts and in terms of look-and-feel.

I must confess, I cheated by peeking at the beta already, by creating a new beta blog under my gmail account. (Well, the beta announcement even said it was okay, for those who couldn't wait. ;P )

It looks much more polished and convenient to use (gotta love those Ajax menus), so I can't wait til my current blog can be merged over. The new tags and security options are a couple of the other much-needed features that I've been drooling over. But mainly, it's about the new UI/workflow.

It's not that I have a hard time with the current interface. I'm perfectly comfortable coding up entire sites using just vi or notepad. But a nice WYSIWYG interface can save a lot of time and hassle, especially if they give easy access to the underlying code alongside the visual interface.

Call it convenience, call it laziness, call it whatever you want. Years ago, there was a time when I might've been offended or embarrassed to be caught using such visual tools, but since then I've come to see them for exactly what they are: tools. After years of working in web/graphic design/development (and related areas), what I've come to understand is that it's really not about the tools, it's all about the person wielding them.

It seems that every fledgling programmer goes through this phase of "tools snobbery" when they reach a certain advanced beginner level. They become all proud of themselves for being able to do things completely from scratch, and look down on anyone who uses WSYIWYG editors, programming libraries, or any other third-party apps designed to make one's work life easier.

And in some ways I think it's actually good to go through that phase, because there's definitely merit in learning how things work underneath, before touching any tools to do the same work for you. Otherwise, the tools become a crutch, and the tool user is in trouble if/when the tools ever break (so to speak).

But once you've learned something to the point where you can do it in your sleep, I don't see anything wrong with turning it over to a "tool" so that you can spend more time on other, more challenging tasks.