In order to reduce the overhead between having an idea and posting it on my
blog, I recently switched from WordPress to
LightBlog, a lightweight blog
engine developed by Guillaume Claret. It works
as follows: to create a new post, write it as an HTML file in a posts/
folder, then run make at the root of the blog's directory to regenerate
the whole blog as a set of static web pages.
Why so simple? Well, my blog happens to be quite simple. The database
essentially consists in date-text pairs, and it is only updated when I post a
new entry. WordPress required an SQL database for this and provided me with a
big and unsecure (I never managed to get SSL certificates running) web portal
to edit content. And I don't want to think about the cumulated time I've spent
updating it, each time manually (otherwise I would have had to give away my SSH
password on a clear channel). With LightBlog, I don't need to be online to edit
a post: I can write it anywhere (say, in the train) and git push it
when I'm done.
Let's see what comes out of this move to the other side of the spectrum.
Postscriptum¶
It came out great! Although LightBlog is not actively developed any more, the same idea got traction in Pelican which has been powering this website for years. The project is still active as of 2022.
Discussion ¶
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