3 ms·

Cryogen: a friendly static site generator

29 points by yogthos 12y ago

lotyrin 12y ago
Is the file type-based directory structure required? I find it redundant (my files already specify their type with extensions) and counter-intuitive (I'd expect to find two posts in the same "posts" directory, regardless of their type).
mrec 12y ago
Do you not see the contradiction in advertising something as "friendly" and "made easy", then having the first "Simple" bullet be "Shipped as a Leiningen template"? You're pitching at (non-technical?) users who want a static site generator, and then assuming they're automatically Clojure developers.
- yogthos 12y ago
  It doesn't require any Clojure knowledge to use. You simply have to install a build tool to run it. The site generation is configured entirely through config variables and templates are plain HTML.
  - CJefferson 12y ago
    If it doesn't require it, then don't use words you don't define in the first sentence of your webpage. I'm currently on the lookout for a static website generator (new year, new blog). This webpage is very off putting. The quick start guide -- install lenonwhatever, fine. The start new project? In what? When do I install your thing? Is your thing lenonwhatever?
    - walterbell 12y ago
      Jekyll + Liquid (from Shopify) works with Github Pages or any other host.
      - yogthos 12y ago
        Cryogen works for Github Pages as well and it's a lot easier to get running.
    - yogthos 12y ago
      The specific commands that you have to run are listed right on the front page. When you have lein installed, which involves grabbing the script and running it, then you simply run "lein new cryogen my-blog" and that's it. You now have your static site generator ready to go in the folder called "my-blog". You got to the folder and run "lein ring server" to serve the site locally and watch for any changes you make. It's literally a 3 step process. Not sure what part of it you found off putting specifically.
      - CJefferson 12y ago
        You forget I don't know clojure. How do I install cryogen? Neither the 3 step guide, or the terminal, are complete by themselves. I suspect you want people to do step 1 of your 3 step guide, then switch to the terminal, then switch back for step 3 of the 3 step guide? I would recommend making that clearer :) I like a guide I go through step by step, here it seems I have to follow nonlinearly.
        yogthos 12y ago
        If you actually try following the steps you'll see that you don't actually have to switch around. :) Once you have leiningen installed and you run the 3 commands shown a browser window will automatically open up showing your site. The documentation has detailed instructions on how to customize and configure the site from there on.
        detaro 12y ago
        Apparently, > lein new cryogen my-blog is "create a new project" and Leiningen will automatically look up what cryogen is on clojars.org and fetch the appropriate template, so you don't have to explicitly install cryogen. You really just have to install Leiningen and run the commands given in the box. But I also needed to look at the docs of the different parts to understand that, so definitively potential for improvement there. Also, it would be nice to find out the language immediately, outside of Clojure-space most people probably don't know what Leiningen is or that it has something to do with Clojure.
      - detaro 12y ago
Gonzih 12y ago
How hard will it be to use custom layouts and custom pages using this generator?
- yogthos 12y ago
  The layouts are just plain HTML with CSS or SASS.
nilliams 12y ago
Is there any advantage (to the end-user) of using a 'Clojure map' for the front matter of a post, rather than using YAML like site generators from other languages do, e.g. Jekyll, Wintersmith (Node), Mynt (Python). I kinda like that my markdown files are cross-compatible with any of these various site generators and would say that YAML front matter is something of a de-facto standard? If avoiding YAML is an opinionated stance aimed at fellow Lispers, then I think that's fair, but I think the messaging should perhaps be more along the lines of 'this is a site generator for Clojure people', not 'this is the easy site generator'. I don't think that's a bad thing, as a lot of people prefer to use a site generator written in their language of choice. Of course this could be made a moot point by offering a YAML plugin and a single line in the docs saying '... or you can use YAML syntax if you'd prefer'. Also w.r.t using Clojure maps, the metadata section of the writing posts [1] docs page could use a full example, otherwise I need to google Clojure map syntax. [1] http://cryogenweb.org/docs/writing-posts.html http://cryogenweb.org/docs/writing-posts.html
- lacarmen 12y ago
  Avoiding YAML is opinionated :) I'm using the Clojure reader to parse Markdown files. It reads the next form from an input stream and returns the object represented by that form so by using a Clojure map to represent the metadata, there is no need to do additional parsing. The rest of the Markdown file is read line by line. And I'll make a note to add a full example of the metadata in the docs.

29 points by yogthos 12y ago

Is the file type-based directory structure required? I find it redundant (my files already specify their type with extensions) and counter-intuitive (I'd expect to find two posts in the same "posts" directory, regardless of their type).

mrec 12y ago

Do you not see the contradiction in advertising something as "friendly" and "made easy", then having the first "Simple" bullet be "Shipped as a Leiningen template"? You're pitching at (non-technical?) users who want a static site generator, and then assuming they're automatically Clojure developers.

yogthos 12y ago
It doesn't require any Clojure knowledge to use. You simply have to install a build tool to run it. The site generation is configured entirely through config variables and templates are plain HTML.
- CJefferson 12y ago
  If it doesn't require it, then don't use words you don't define in the first sentence of your webpage. I'm currently on the lookout for a static website generator (new year, new blog). This webpage is very off putting. The quick start guide -- install lenonwhatever, fine. The start new project? In what? When do I install your thing? Is your thing lenonwhatever?
  - walterbell 12y ago
    Jekyll + Liquid (from Shopify) works with Github Pages or any other host.
    - yogthos 12y ago
      Cryogen works for Github Pages as well and it's a lot easier to get running.
  - yogthos 12y ago
    The specific commands that you have to run are listed right on the front page. When you have lein installed, which involves grabbing the script and running it, then you simply run "lein new cryogen my-blog" and that's it. You now have your static site generator ready to go in the folder called "my-blog". You got to the folder and run "lein ring server" to serve the site locally and watch for any changes you make. It's literally a 3 step process. Not sure what part of it you found off putting specifically.
    - CJefferson 12y ago
      You forget I don't know clojure. How do I install cryogen? Neither the 3 step guide, or the terminal, are complete by themselves. I suspect you want people to do step 1 of your 3 step guide, then switch to the terminal, then switch back for step 3 of the 3 step guide? I would recommend making that clearer :) I like a guide I go through step by step, here it seems I have to follow nonlinearly.
      - yogthos 12y ago
        If you actually try following the steps you'll see that you don't actually have to switch around. :) Once you have leiningen installed and you run the 3 commands shown a browser window will automatically open up showing your site. The documentation has detailed instructions on how to customize and configure the site from there on.
      - detaro 12y ago
        Apparently, > lein new cryogen my-blog is "create a new project" and Leiningen will automatically look up what cryogen is on clojars.org and fetch the appropriate template, so you don't have to explicitly install cryogen. You really just have to install Leiningen and run the commands given in the box. But I also needed to look at the docs of the different parts to understand that, so definitively potential for improvement there. Also, it would be nice to find out the language immediately, outside of Clojure-space most people probably don't know what Leiningen is or that it has something to do with Clojure.
    - detaro 12y ago

Gonzih 12y ago

How hard will it be to use custom layouts and custom pages using this generator?

yogthos 12y ago
The layouts are just plain HTML with CSS or SASS.

nilliams 12y ago

Is there any advantage (to the end-user) of using a 'Clojure map' for the front matter of a post, rather than using YAML like site generators from other languages do, e.g. Jekyll, Wintersmith (Node), Mynt (Python). I kinda like that my markdown files are cross-compatible with any of these various site generators and would say that YAML front matter is something of a de-facto standard? If avoiding YAML is an opinionated stance aimed at fellow Lispers, then I think that's fair, but I think the messaging should perhaps be more along the lines of 'this is a site generator for Clojure people', not 'this is the easy site generator'. I don't think that's a bad thing, as a lot of people prefer to use a site generator written in their language of choice. Of course this could be made a moot point by offering a YAML plugin and a single line in the docs saying '... or you can use YAML syntax if you'd prefer'. Also w.r.t using Clojure maps, the metadata section of the writing posts [1] docs page could use a full example, otherwise I need to google Clojure map syntax. [1] http://cryogenweb.org/docs/writing-posts.html http://cryogenweb.org/docs/writing-posts.html

lacarmen 12y ago
Avoiding YAML is opinionated :) I'm using the Clojure reader to parse Markdown files. It reads the next form from an input stream and returns the object represented by that form so by using a Clojure map to represent the metadata, there is no need to do additional parsing. The rest of the Markdown file is read line by line. And I'll make a note to add a full example of the metadata in the docs.