This marks the first time I use Wordpress, ever.

Thanks Nic for inviting me to blog on Techleader — appreciate it. I’ve been considering what a good enough first post would be (there are a couple of ideas that didn’t make it saved elsewhere), and when I was sent the log-in details to Techleader, I realised I’ve actually never used WordPress, not personally and not for a client.

Aside: I have a tendency to do that, skip bits of technology; the first web-based email client I had was in fact Gmail, and I still don’t have DSTV. I haven’t missed much it would seem.

Clearly I’ve heard all about WordPress and I’ve visited tons of sites built on it, checked out the theme sites, commented on WordPress sites and commented about the WordPress theme sites; but I’ve never installed it on a server and more importantly I’ve never written a post with it.

Why not? No real reason except that I’ve never had to go down this particular road before. I’ve played around with Textpattern, ExpressionEngine and Six Apart’s products and left WordPress on the list of things to check out when I get around to it. That timing has always been delayed by a couple of factors, inasmuch I’ve been too busy building fairly similar apps — or apps with similar aspects at least — in work-related environments.

First impression: big fonts, big forms, a calming blue and a singular ‘write’ prompt. Second impression: where’s the rest of it? I know, I know; it’s a blank slate and it will pad out as I add content and I’m sure the super-users see a couple of more screens than me.

These two impressions form a third: thank goodness. Who needs bells and whistles when all I’m here to do is write. They’ve managed to get the interface right and the let’s-get-started thing down pat. They’ve managed to turn intention into interface — one of the hardest tasks in software development. I guess it’s up to me to write something now.