maddy VS Jekyll

Since I offloaded my markdown parsing to maddy, I did not test for it because it was not my own code. As a result, it was difficult to find parts that I could test. I mostly created my test cases for end to end testing. Since the number of things to test for is always numerous, I ended up finding a few things I could test for. But, I definitely am not satisfied with the number of tests I currently have and will be adding more in the future.

Across all the JavaScript-based SSGs, palpatine is developed from the ground up using C++ and CMake as the build system. As the developer and maintainer of palpatine my main concern is to make it lightning fast compared to others. Currently, palpatine1.5 can generate a static site in less than 1 second. I've also made sure that it is easy to use, with a simple command line interface. The documentation is also precise and easy to follow. However, it is lacking one of the core features, supporting markdown files fully. I've been working on this feature for the past few days and I found a header-only Markdown parser library maddy. But it seems that it has been more than a year since the last commit was made to the library. I'm not sure if it is still being maintained. CMake was quite upset about how outdated it was.

Taking inspiration from Docusaurus, I added full markdown parsing support to my SSG. I chose to add this because it was a core component of my SSG that remained incomplete. Instead of adding a nice-to-have feature, I figured it would be best to complete the core functionality of my SSG first. Instead of coding my own markdown parsing, it was much easier to simply use a markdown parsing library which already existed. I did this by using a maddy, a C++ markdown parsing library. The process of using the library was very straightforward, although calling its methods did noticeably slow down the html generation. After verifying that it worked with my SSG, I removed my initial implementation of markdown parsing.

This blog is running on Hugo. It had previously been running on Jekyll. Both these SSGs ship with the ability to create excerpts from your markdown content in 1 line or thereabouts.

Jekyll

In future, if you want to move from Jekyll to something else, you just have to worry about that `_posts` and `_assets` folder. They may have different naming convention but you can just config-managed it or change it to your choice. This is why I suggested owning that two yourself.

You also may not worry about FrontMatter[3] (meta in the header) and its accompanying jazz by asking Jekyll to use the plugins `jekyll-optional-front-matter` and `jekyll-titles-from-headings`. These comes as part of the officially supported Jekyll plugins[4] by Github. That way, you are just writing a human-readable plain-text spiced up with Markdown and readable by almost every other Static Site Generator.

Now, play with the `_config.yml` that Jekyll generates for you from the theme above to define your post dates, navigation, and others. Jekyll is one of the OGs — the Gandalf of Static Site Generators. If you have a problem, someone somewhere has solved that.

Did I missed something? I was supposed to write a blog article for my website on this one and this comment will serve as my starting bullet points.

1. https://docs.github.com/en/pages/setting-up-a-github-pages-s...

2. https://jekyllrb.com

3. https://frontmatter.codes/docs/markdown

4. https://docs.github.com/en/pages/setting-up-a-github-pages-s...

"Using the Chirpy theme for Jekyll."

I would suggest looking into static site generators. Some popular examples, which are used myself are: - Hugo: https://gohugo.io/ - Jekyll: https://jekyllrb.com

In terms of GitHub stars, SSGs like Next.js, Hugo, Gatsby, Docusaurus, Nuxt.js, and Jekyll top the list. Some popular SSGs even host conferences and workshops, providing resources and networking opportunities for those looking to explore more advanced topics in depth.

I created my blog using Jekyll, a great open-source tool that can transform your markdown content into a simple, old-fashioned-but-trendy, static site. What are the advantages of this approach? The site is super-light, super-fast, super-secure and SEO-friendly. Of course, it’s not always the best solution, but for some use cases, like a simple personal blog, it’s really a good option.

Yes, it's Markdown and I use https://jekyllrb.com with the theme "jekyll-theme-hacker" to generate the site. I quite like how simple it is.