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I run allaboutberlin.com for a living. I switched from Craft CMS to a homebrew static site generator (Markdown + Jekyll) and it was a game changer. Static site

by nicbou 2y ago

I run allaboutberlin.com for a living. I switched from Craft CMS to a homebrew static site generator (Markdown + Jekyll) and it was a game changer. Static sites are almost maintenance-free. They cost pennies to host. You work on your content using the tools that you love, if necessary offline. There are many excellent markdown editors and no CMS comes close. Everything is under source control and deploys with a push. If you're used to text files and command line utilities, static site generators are a no-brainer. You probably shouldn't roll your own though.

pjot 2y ago
Why not roll your own? Sure, you have to build it and maintain it, but isn’t that in the spirit of programming? It’s fun.
- carimura 2y ago
  Let's rewrite the OS while we're at it since that's in the spirit of programming! :) Just use the nice tools available unless your goal is to rebuild the stack.
- blooalien 2y ago
  Or if you can find one that's close to your exact needs, use that and submit patches and pull requests upstream, or fork and maintain your fork if your changes aren't appropriate or acceptable for upstream. Easier than rolling your own if you just don't feel like going to that extreme, and still helps the ecosystem grow and thrive.
- jononor 2y ago
  Assuming that the purpose of the blog is to write/publish, then all of that is distraction from actually writing.
  - meiraleal 2y ago
    Blogging about creating a custom static site generator for the blog is the most common first (and last) post.
- nicbou 2y ago
  If you do it for the love of the game, definitely. It's a fun little project. I rolled my own because I wanted to use Jinja inside Markdown. This lets me include widgets in the content, and use Python-based constants in the text. For example, when the German minimum wage changes, I change one constant and it triggers a bunch of updates across the website. I also wanted to control the content-to-website pipeline a little better. The SSG builds pages, but also generates text-to-speech audio for glossary terms, makes some typographic changes, and lints the Markdown for site-specific issues. I wrote a bit about it here: https://nicolasbouliane.com/projects/ursus https://nicolasbouliane.com/projects/ursus The code is here: https://github.com/All-About-Berlin/ursus/ https://github.com/All-About-Berlin/ursus/
- AlienRobot 2y ago
  https://xkcd.com/1319/ https://xkcd.com/1319/
Brajeshwar 2y ago
All about Berlin is beautiful. I felt nice to know about the simple but powerful setup. I was all after CloudFlare pages with all the options a few years back and I experienced downtimes. I don't remember a single downtime in the last year or so with GitHub Pages. Of course, I use CloudFlare on top to greet the visitors.
- nicbou 2y ago
  Cloudflare has been really solid for me back in the CMS days. Now it's a little overkill on top of a static site, but it does speed up page load times for distant visitors. I tried Github Pages for another project and it's brilliant too.
  - vladsanchez 2y ago
    Cloudflare Pages Is? Mind sharing the alternative? Thanks in advance.
guenthert 2y ago
Just had a peek at allaboutberlin.com. Pretty, thankfully slim and what I've seen (just glanced over the housing section) solid advice. You deserve some price for that.
- nicbou 2y ago
  Thank you! It took years of snall edits with help from a lot of knowledgeable people. The effort especially shows in Ausländerbehörde and Bürgeramt guides. The official website is pretty bad.
pcranaway 2y ago
thank you for making this site! i'm planning on moving to germany after i'm done with my studies and this will be pretty helpful do you have any other resources helpful for expats? (perhaps something more like adjusting to the social life, meeting people, etc) would sure be helpful to put it there
- nicbou 2y ago
  Everything I know, I put on the website. I never focused on the fun things, but I at least link to some of them in the "How to move to Berlin" guide. Try following a few newsletters. I like that Berlin Events Weekly creates a Telegram channel so people can meet and attend events. For things to do, Mit Vergnügen is pretty good.

by nicbou 2y ago

pjot 2y ago

Why not roll your own? Sure, you have to build it and maintain it, but isn’t that in the spirit of programming? It’s fun.

carimura 2y ago
Let's rewrite the OS while we're at it since that's in the spirit of programming! :) Just use the nice tools available unless your goal is to rebuild the stack.
blooalien 2y ago
Or if you can find one that's close to your exact needs, use that and submit patches and pull requests upstream, or fork and maintain your fork if your changes aren't appropriate or acceptable for upstream. Easier than rolling your own if you just don't feel like going to that extreme, and still helps the ecosystem grow and thrive.
jononor 2y ago
Assuming that the purpose of the blog is to write/publish, then all of that is distraction from actually writing.
- meiraleal 2y ago
  Blogging about creating a custom static site generator for the blog is the most common first (and last) post.
nicbou 2y ago
If you do it for the love of the game, definitely. It's a fun little project. I rolled my own because I wanted to use Jinja inside Markdown. This lets me include widgets in the content, and use Python-based constants in the text. For example, when the German minimum wage changes, I change one constant and it triggers a bunch of updates across the website. I also wanted to control the content-to-website pipeline a little better. The SSG builds pages, but also generates text-to-speech audio for glossary terms, makes some typographic changes, and lints the Markdown for site-specific issues. I wrote a bit about it here: https://nicolasbouliane.com/projects/ursus https://nicolasbouliane.com/projects/ursus The code is here: https://github.com/All-About-Berlin/ursus/ https://github.com/All-About-Berlin/ursus/
AlienRobot 2y ago
https://xkcd.com/1319/ https://xkcd.com/1319/

Brajeshwar 2y ago

All about Berlin is beautiful. I felt nice to know about the simple but powerful setup. I was all after CloudFlare pages with all the options a few years back and I experienced downtimes. I don't remember a single downtime in the last year or so with GitHub Pages. Of course, I use CloudFlare on top to greet the visitors.

nicbou 2y ago
Cloudflare has been really solid for me back in the CMS days. Now it's a little overkill on top of a static site, but it does speed up page load times for distant visitors. I tried Github Pages for another project and it's brilliant too.
- vladsanchez 2y ago
  Cloudflare Pages Is? Mind sharing the alternative? Thanks in advance.

guenthert 2y ago

Just had a peek at allaboutberlin.com. Pretty, thankfully slim and what I've seen (just glanced over the housing section) solid advice. You deserve some price for that.

nicbou 2y ago
Thank you! It took years of snall edits with help from a lot of knowledgeable people. The effort especially shows in Ausländerbehörde and Bürgeramt guides. The official website is pretty bad.

pcranaway 2y ago

thank you for making this site! i'm planning on moving to germany after i'm done with my studies and this will be pretty helpful do you have any other resources helpful for expats? (perhaps something more like adjusting to the social life, meeting people, etc) would sure be helpful to put it there

nicbou 2y ago
Everything I know, I put on the website. I never focused on the fun things, but I at least link to some of them in the "How to move to Berlin" guide. Try following a few newsletters. I like that Berlin Events Weekly creates a Telegram channel so people can meet and attend events. For things to do, Mit Vergnügen is pretty good.