4 ms·

Ideally the perfect static site system should be a meta language, like one of the wiki languages, for which several solutions could be used to translate to HTML

Ideally the perfect static site system should be a meta language, like one of the wiki languages, for which several solutions could be used to translate to HTML etc... We shouldn't have to rewrite our blogs every time a new cool programing language comes around!

geraldcombs 9y ago
The Website Meta Language has been around since 1996: http://thewml.org/ http://thewml.org/. I used it to generate content years ago before more modern tools came out.
Kadin 9y ago
I think that Liquid, the template language used by Jekyll and some other products, is designed to basically be that. https://shopify.github.io/liquid/ https://shopify.github.io/liquid/ The problem is that it's written in Ruby and therefore most implementations of it require you to have the whole Ruby dependency chain. That really increases its footprint on a cheap webhost, if you want the SSG to happen server-side (e.g. triggered by a Git hook).
- Keats 9y ago
  Liquid is just a template engine, I don't think this is what the OP meant.
kaushalmodi 9y ago
Is this what you mean: I write my blog posts in Org mode. So I wrote this package ox-hugo that exports that to Markdown + the front-matter required by Hugo, in the folder structure for Hugo. Now I just write in normal Org, and don't worry about manually setting up the post front-matter -- https://ox-hugo.scripter.co https://ox-hugo.scripter.co (That site is generated by ox-hugo + Hugo btw :))
- dorfsmay 9y ago
  Yes, although I'm not an emacs user. I've been trying to pick a "meta language", eventually given up but I cannot remember why, I need to pick it up again.
taneq 9y ago
If only there were some form of Markup Language for HyperText that could be used to generate a static web page... hmmmmmm.
- dorfsmay 9y ago
  HTML has become a presentation layer, it keeps evolving, and is too constraining to write blogs.

geraldcombs 9y ago

The Website Meta Language has been around since 1996: http://thewml.org/ http://thewml.org/. I used it to generate content years ago before more modern tools came out.

Kadin 9y ago

I think that Liquid, the template language used by Jekyll and some other products, is designed to basically be that. https://shopify.github.io/liquid/ https://shopify.github.io/liquid/ The problem is that it's written in Ruby and therefore most implementations of it require you to have the whole Ruby dependency chain. That really increases its footprint on a cheap webhost, if you want the SSG to happen server-side (e.g. triggered by a Git hook).

Keats 9y ago
Liquid is just a template engine, I don't think this is what the OP meant.

kaushalmodi 9y ago

Is this what you mean: I write my blog posts in Org mode. So I wrote this package ox-hugo that exports that to Markdown + the front-matter required by Hugo, in the folder structure for Hugo. Now I just write in normal Org, and don't worry about manually setting up the post front-matter -- https://ox-hugo.scripter.co https://ox-hugo.scripter.co (That site is generated by ox-hugo + Hugo btw :))

dorfsmay 9y ago
Yes, although I'm not an emacs user. I've been trying to pick a "meta language", eventually given up but I cannot remember why, I need to pick it up again.

taneq 9y ago

If only there were some form of Markup Language for HyperText that could be used to generate a static web page... hmmmmmm.

dorfsmay 9y ago
HTML has become a presentation layer, it keeps evolving, and is too constraining to write blogs.