From: Roland Hieber Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 01:21:56 +0000 (+0100) Subject: new blag post: New Blag, yay! X-Git-Url: https://git.rohieb.name/www-rohieb-name.git/commitdiff_plain/feca0b5e915550cea8f0fc3a98a1e5fddb8419ee new blag post: New Blag, yay! --- diff --git a/blag/post/new-blog-yay-.mdwn b/blag/post/new-blog-yay-.mdwn new file mode 100644 index 0000000..05d523d --- /dev/null +++ b/blag/post/new-blog-yay-.mdwn @@ -0,0 +1,73 @@ +[[!meta title="New Blag, yay!"]] +[[!meta author="rohieb"]] +[[!meta license="CC-BY-SA 3.0"]] +[[!img defaults size=x200]] + +Sooo. You might already have noticed that I moved my [blag][] from +[wordpress.com][r.wp.c] to my own domain. There were several reasons for that, +which also kept me from blogging actively. At first, WordPress seemed like a +good solution for beginners, and since I didn’t want to set up my own ([probably +buggy][wp-bugs]) instance, a hosted blog at WordPress.com seemed like the best +solution to get started with blogging. + +[blag]: http://xkcd.com/148/ +[r.wp.c]: http://rohieb.wordpress.com +[wp-bugs]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordpress#Vulnerabilities + +However, the free plan at WordPress.com does not allow very much customization: +you can choose from a few themes, but you can neither edit the underlying HTML framework of the page, nor is is +possible to do a little CSS +tweaking. For example, I like my <code> tags with a little +darker background so they become more distinguished from the remaining text and +so you can easily see what you have to type on your keyboard and what not. + +Also, I had to write blogposts in my browser. I’m not a big fan of the idea that +the browser should become an “operating system” for the web +cloud. My computer is more than a dumb terminal for the web, I like my terminals +and my offline applications and distributed workflows. In most cases, I find +distributed workflows much more flexible, and you can choose if and when you +want to lose control over your data to the cloud. And, without question, I lost +more than one draft to browser crashes (admittedly, Firefox got a lot more +stable since then), accidentally closed tabs and timed out login sessions. And +WordPress tends to be overloaded with complex page layouts and JavaScript, which +makes everything soooo slooooow… + +So it seemed obvious to move my blog to my existing site, which already runs on +[ikiwiki][]. For those who do not know ikiwiki, it is a static site generator +which takes [Markdown][][^1] files as input and spits out static HTML pages. It +works good in combination with [Git][] (a distributed version control system, +which I use all day anyway), which makes it possible to write and preview every +page on your own computer, using your favourite editor, offline (in fact I’m +writing this post from a laundrette), and when everything is finished (and you +have Internet access), you push it to your server, where everything is rendered. +There is also [an easy way][ikiwiki-blog] to aggregate multiple pages to a blog, +including the automatic generation of RSS and Atom feeds. Also I have full +control over the [[CSS|local.css]] (which will probably still change in the next +few weeks) and the [[templates]] used to render the HTML files. For example, I +have hacked together a [little plugin][flattrthing.pm] to support Flattr buttons +and integrated it into the template which is used to render the blog posts. +There is even a dynamic part of ikiwiki which allows users to add comments, I +will probably try that in the future and convert all the WordPress comments. +And finally, if you want, you can read the full [source code][] of every page +:-) + +The move to ikiwiki was already in my head a long time, so I started writing new +blogposts in Markdown right away, so they started piling up on my disk. Now that +I have the new setup, I already have content to fill the next few weeks, so stay +tuned! + +[ikiwiki]: http://ikiwiki.info +[Markdown]: http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax +[Git]: http://git-scm.com +[ikiwiki-blog]: http://ikiwiki.info/blog/ +[source code]: http://git.rohieb.name/www-rohieb-name.git +[flattrthing.pm]: http://git.rohieb.name/www-rohieb-name.git/blob/HEAD:/plugins/IkiWiki/Plugin/flattrthing.pm +[MultiMarkdown]: https://rawgithub.com/fletcher/human-markdown-reference/master/index.html +[reStructuredText]: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html +[Textile]: http://textile.sitemonks.com/ +[^1]: Though I’m using [MultiMarkdown][] for most pages, which is a superset of + Markdown with additional features (like footnotes). But ikiwiki also + supports other markup languages, e.g. [reStructuredText][] or [Textile][]. + +[[!tag meta ikiwiki Markdown Git WordPress blogging]]