Update: Yeah… Jekyll was great and I had a lot of fun with it, but I’ve since moved off it to Medium. There’s lots of cool stuff you can do with Jekyll, but in the end the need to develop posts with a text editor and a Ruby environment lost out to a convenient iOS app.
So it’s been more days than I’d like since my last blog, sadly since I’ve been dealing with some discomfort in my arms along the lines of an RSI, something I plan on discussing more. That said I’m on the mend, and wanted at least a small post so I don’t feel like such a slacker.
Since I setup my blog a number of folks have asked me what I’m using, how it’s set up, etc. To make that easier to understand I decided to open source my blog so a similar setup is just a fork away. I’m also excited since this will allow me to publish content without actually pushing it to my blog, giving me a chance to solicit feedback without having to email markdown files.
The Repository:
sroberts.github.io — There it is. The whole thing
Quick Rundown
Here’s whats behind my blog:
Blog Package: Jekyll
The amazing open source blogging platform lives up to it’s reputation for clean, easy to use blogging. I already write Markdown all day, so it’s an easy to way to write blog content as well.
Blog Theme: Hyde
Gotta love a literary turn of phrase, Hyde gave me a great look without forcing me into lengthy HTML/CSS customization. I trust the professionals.
Hosting: GitHub Pages
Create pull request, commit post, merge pull request, have blog. Easy.
Text Editor: Vim
I’ve been trying to force myself to use Vim for most things, this is no exception. Square’s Maximum Awesome package makes it usable.
Spell Checking: Aspell
I’ve already mentioned how great Aspell is, but it’s really a life saver for words I put in front of real people.
Image Editor: Pixelmator
On the rare cases I post images and need them edited Pixelmator is the best combo of features & ease of use.
Bonus: hub
It’s great being able to do things like open a pull request without leaving the command line. I also use hub browse to jump to the right place on the web more than I care to admit.
Bonus: GitHub Pages Gem
This gem keeps everything inline, making sure you always stay up to date on Jekyll version, Pages compatibility, etc.
Bonus: GitHub Issues
I also use the repository Issues to keep track of posts I’d like to write, notes, etc.
Going Forward
I welcome feedback and suggestions via the open issues. While I want to avoid discussions of content in there please feel free to comment on what I’m planning to write and changes I plan to make. Feel free to rip off content, just give credit where credit is due. And thanks to all those who built the tools, I couldn’t do it without you.