I finally got around to pound out some code to make this site a little easier to update. It is by no means close to being finished, but it works. I am designing it after Outlook 2003, and I have the main interface almost completed.

I spent about two days working on a "new" template system. Since the majority of my site is XML data transformed with XSL, I did not see a reason to stop using that technique. The template system is all XSL. While I have needed to hard code a few controls (it was a pain figuring out how to add Web Controls through XSL), the system is very skinnable (just change the XSL!).

Web Controls are a Godsend. I certainly rue the day when I will have to get data from the query string or post variables again. Microsoft really did an excellent job in ASP.NET.

My trials with XSL+Web Controls has inspired me to start work on an article for the upcoming AlphaFilter() site. Foo is diligently working on getting the site up. Hopefully I'll have the article (as well as a CSS article) finished when the site goes live.

Time for a break!