I'm looking to set up a blog.
There are many "what's the best blogging engine?" questions on SO, but none totally focused on code quality.
I have done a lot of work with WordPress, and it's the #1 solution for many cases, no question. Its extendability and versatility are unmatched. But the code base is a mess, it has a huge memory footprint and extending it often isn't fun. Also, the back-end feels extremely slow on slightly older machines and becomes bearable only with Google Gears IMO. I'm getting less and less comfortable using it.
For that reason, I am looking for recommendations for a PHP-based blogging engine that is
Simple, slim, and minimalistic in build
Has good, structured, clean code, uses PHP5
Has blogging basics: Tags, Categories, Comments
Doesn't have to look good but needs to output good, semantic HTML / CSS so I can customize
Supports some sort of spam control (Captcha and / or Akismet would be nice)
I don't care whether it's database or file based
Optional:
An API would be nice but is not mandatory
Has a plugin system for extensions
Wet dream:
- Markdown support