I recently became aware of two awesome things:

• Posting to my blog with TextMate
• Using Markdown for generating HTML

These two things have very quickly changed my coding life. I can now create more code, more quickly, and more efficiently. Also I can use my favorite text editor to post directly to my blog via XML-RPC.

TextMate

I first came across TextMate a year or two ago, and I was blown away! It took me a little while to grow accustomed to using the bundles, but now I tear it up without even thinking about it. And I learn something new every week.

Check out Blogging From TextMate or go directly to the screencast if you’ve never seen it. It’s already saved hours, and I can write my entries using Textmate the same as I do already.

Markdown

Markdown is sweet! I’ve been writing my HTML by hand (this was my choice) because I don’t trust certain tools like Dreamweaver and other WYSIWYG type editors; I only trust myself and TextMate. After working with Markdown for just a little while and watching closely its output, I am confident in its ability to deliver the same caliber code that I write.

So I can put some trust into a conversion tool! That’s excellent, because now I can pump out some HTML in 1/3 of the time I already can-which id pretty fast to begin with.