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I was talking about execution, not coding. Dynamically creating a page that's mostly static content doesn't really benefit from instant updates. Consider that

by mhd 15y ago

I was talking about execution, not coding. Dynamically creating a page that's mostly static content doesn't really benefit from instant updates. Consider that recently static site generators have been enjoying quite a popularity, as they enable you to have a very simple server-side system (static web server only, or something like Amazon's S3) and work well under load (being "slashdotted/reddited/HN'd"), without extensive caching.

bmelton 15y ago
Ah, my bad. I completely missed your point. By that same token, we'd consider Wordpress overkill for a blog too, right? From my understanding, Meteor's focus is in probably the opposite trajectory as you're suggesting, but I also don't see any reason you couldn't use it to generate a static blog. There's no need for it to be coupled to Mongo, so uninstall that. Then just implement a JS markdown parser to build a static file. Of course, there's no need to use Meteor for this at all, as you could do it in straight up Node -- the enhancements you get from Meteor don't make this process any easier.
- mhd 15y ago
  By that same token, we'd consider Wordpress overkill for a blog too, right? Well, a lot of the people using static site generators now came from Wordpress. Mostly because they fulfilled all the "requirements": Able to handle markup/scripting/deployment, no big need for all kinds of widgets and plugins, and the possibility of being subjected to overload (e.g. by posting here…). One major feature of Wordpress and similar platforms is the editing/admin section, of course. Not everyone wants/can do everything with git. So I wasn't saying that there's no need for something like this at all… Still, whether this is any worse than wordpress depends on the architecture, of course. Loading everything in client-side JavaScript doesn't need to be less efficient then generating it server-side. Good caching is possible, too.
  - bmelton 15y ago
    In theory, you could build a site that functions entirely with just HTML and client-side Javascript. I've done it before and, so long as you can expose a directory listing on wherever you keep your 'blog posts', you can just consume it with JS, perhaps transform Markdown into HTML (or just save as HTML). You won't get an editing/admin section though, naturally, as you won't be able to save a file to the server from client-side JS. Something like this or Node bridges that gap. Have you seen http://www.spintoapp.com/ http://www.spintoapp.com/? It just launched here the other day, and might be exactly what you're looking for. (Jekyll as a Service, basically)

by mhd 15y ago

bmelton 15y ago

Ah, my bad. I completely missed your point. By that same token, we'd consider Wordpress overkill for a blog too, right? From my understanding, Meteor's focus is in probably the opposite trajectory as you're suggesting, but I also don't see any reason you couldn't use it to generate a static blog. There's no need for it to be coupled to Mongo, so uninstall that. Then just implement a JS markdown parser to build a static file. Of course, there's no need to use Meteor for this at all, as you could do it in straight up Node -- the enhancements you get from Meteor don't make this process any easier.

mhd 15y ago
By that same token, we'd consider Wordpress overkill for a blog too, right? Well, a lot of the people using static site generators now came from Wordpress. Mostly because they fulfilled all the "requirements": Able to handle markup/scripting/deployment, no big need for all kinds of widgets and plugins, and the possibility of being subjected to overload (e.g. by posting here…). One major feature of Wordpress and similar platforms is the editing/admin section, of course. Not everyone wants/can do everything with git. So I wasn't saying that there's no need for something like this at all… Still, whether this is any worse than wordpress depends on the architecture, of course. Loading everything in client-side JavaScript doesn't need to be less efficient then generating it server-side. Good caching is possible, too.
- bmelton 15y ago
  In theory, you could build a site that functions entirely with just HTML and client-side Javascript. I've done it before and, so long as you can expose a directory listing on wherever you keep your 'blog posts', you can just consume it with JS, perhaps transform Markdown into HTML (or just save as HTML). You won't get an editing/admin section though, naturally, as you won't be able to save a file to the server from client-side JS. Something like this or Node bridges that gap. Have you seen http://www.spintoapp.com/ http://www.spintoapp.com/? It just launched here the other day, and might be exactly what you're looking for. (Jekyll as a Service, basically)