Dear fellow programmers, I have some ‘site maintenance updates’. Before I start on the updates, I would first like to thank you all for your wonderful support over the years. I really appreciate that. As most of you are aware, I have been writing C programs on this website from 2011.

Some of you here have sent emails to thank me for the programs, to ask a doubt or even to report an error you discovered. I’m sorry if I have not replied to your email in time. Our Facebook Page has also seen great response. I regret not being more active there. However, that’s going to change now.

This website started as a small blog on Blogger’s sub-domain in 2011. I started writing simple C programs with some help from my friend Chinmaya. Later, as the readership increased, I moved it to it’s own domain www.c-program-example.com. As you can see, it’s still running on the same domain. While Blogger is a great platform to start with, it lacks the flexibility of a full fledged Content Management System. Now that the website gets around 100000 page views every month, I decide to move it to WordPress.

I seem to have successfully imported all the blog posts. However, the move has not been as smooth as I wanted. Old posts had lot of embedded html and JavaScript. WordPress doesn’t play so well with it. As a result, you may see several broken links or nonfunctional buttons/features. I will be working to fix them all over next week or so. Please let me know if you find anything broken.

Let’s get to the details now.

What has changed

The website is now hosted on WordPress. This should not affect your website experience directly. You may notice frequent change in color/theme as I experiment with it.

Better layout and font options. You will notice them soon.

Website loads much faster, thanks to various plug-ins I’m using to optimize the website for speed and performance.

The code highlighting has gone! I will find a plug-in for better embedding of source code within post.

What has NOT changed

URLs: If I have done the migration and redirection properly, all the posts should be available at their old urls. That means, any posts you have bookmarked in your browser, or shared with someone else should all work as before.

If I have done the migration and redirection properly, all the posts should be available at their old urls. That means, any posts you have bookmarked in your browser, or shared with someone else should all work as before. Search feature: ‘Search’ continues to be one of the most used feature on our website. I have included it in this website. You can find it in the right side bar. Only difference is that the search box is much smaller 🙂

‘Search’ continues to be one of the most used feature on our website. I have included it in this website. You can find it in the right side bar. Only difference is that the search box is much smaller 🙂 Facebook Page: C Program Example’s official Facebook Page remains unchanged. You can follow that page by clicking on the link in previous sentence. I will be adding a widget in sidebar soon to make it easy to ‘Like’.

C Program Example’s official Facebook Page remains unchanged. You can follow that page by clicking on the link in previous sentence. I will be adding a widget in sidebar soon to make it easy to ‘Like’. Contact information. You can still email me on [email protected] Oh! And I promise to reply sooner now 😉

What is Missing

Pages: Yes. The old site had a few static pages. One that listed all the solutions to exercise problems from K&R C. Another listed useful programs along with links. Those pages are not in the new site. I will add them with some improvements over next week or two.

Yes. The old site had a few static pages. One that listed all the solutions to exercise problems from K&R C. Another listed useful programs along with links. Those pages are not in the new site. I will add them with some improvements over next week or two. Google+ comments: Blogger allowed visitors to comment on posts using their Google login. With new WordPress sites, you will need to have WordPress login or give your name and email.

Blogger allowed visitors to comment on posts using their Google login. With new WordPress sites, you will need to have WordPress login or give your name and email. Embedded Buttons in post: Posts on old site allowed readers to Like our Facebook Page or Follow us on Twitter by intuitive embedded buttons. That’s all gone now. I will clean up every post and add these buttons only in side bar. I hope this makes posts more readable.

Unknowns!

Feeds: I haven’t had a chance to test the feeds(RSS/atom). If you are reading this post via rss reader, then it’s most likely working. I’m adding it to my todo list.

I haven’t had a chance to test the feeds(RSS/atom). If you are reading this post via rss reader, then it’s most likely working. I’m adding it to my todo list. Posts in Email: One of the last changes I did in old site was to add support for subscribing to posts via email. I don’t even remember which service was used for that. I have got many subscribers through that. That will be added soon.

One of the last changes I did in old site was to add support for subscribing to posts via email. I don’t even remember which service was used for that. I have got many subscribers through that. That will be added soon. Link to Pages: If posts had links to Pages, it’d all be broken.

If posts had links to Pages, it’d all be broken. Links to Search Results: Some posts have links to search results which may be invalid now.

What to expect in future

As I promised earlier, things are going to be much better over here! These are some things you can expect in near future

Complete website features with all relevant plugins and widgets

All broken links fixed or removed where irrelevant

Plug-ins for close integration with Facebook Page and Twitter.

Quicker response to comments and better comment moderation.

Better code display inside post by using Gists.

and in not-so-near future

Sample input and out put for each program

Screen-shots of terminal/output where needed

Tutorial/guide posts for beginners to learn how to compile and run C programs in various platforms.

A static page for listing these tutorial with support for selecting a tutorial based on OS and other options.

Screen record or video with audio explaining programs.

Weekly open hangout for discussions and/or questions. Keep watching this space (and Facebook Page) for event announcements.

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading through site maintenance updates. Happy coding.

-SN