A dead simple static site generator
A while back I wrote a static site generator called bluesky that essentially mimicked the functionality of Sergey. It was called bluesky and it was written in C++.
But I don't like C++. I like C. I just suck at it.
So I wrote it in C++ because it was a complex project (a templating engine specifically) which required some level of sophistication in relation to scanning and lexing that I lacked.
Since I'm reading [Crafting Interpreters][ci] I figured I'd come back and rewrite it in C.
<nowclaire-include name="_nav.html"/>
<nowclaire-md-include path="hello.md"/>
<nowclaire-template name="_imports/template.html"/>
<nowclaire-block name="content">
Hello, world!
</nowclaire-block>
<nowclaire-slot name="content"/>
<nowclaire-markdown
slot="content"
directory="posts"
title="title"
sort="date"
order="descending"
template="_imports/post.html"
/>
<h1>${meta.site_title}</h1>I'm sick of ultra complex static site generators.
Especially when the functionality could be easily reproduced if html implemented these basic features:
- HTML includes (just like #include in c/cpp, drop the included file wholecloth into the including file)
- HTML templates (the reverse of #include, drop the templated file directly into the template, using named slots)
- HTML markdown (create a template for each markdown file, generate a list of links, and convert every file within a directory into an html page using the template)
The closest thing to doing just that I've found is Sergey which is a nice little project written as a single file of JavaScript.
That's cool and all, and I use it, but its JavaScript (🤮😜).
C++ is also gross, but way easier than C, which I do want to eventually convert this to. And, you know, my dog died, and I wanted to make something named after her. Pic coming soon.
So, this is for you, Sky Blue.
To build a site:
nowclaire -i ./src -o ./build
To use the development server:
nowclaire -i ./src -h 0.0.0.0
The host can be any ip with a colon port. The default port is 8080 if no port is provided. You can't call -h without
an argument (a limitation of non-gnu getopt implementations) but if you want to use the default
ip/port, 127.0.0.1:8080:
nowclaire -i ./src -h ""
-v is verbose mode, which I find useful.
<nowclaire-include name="_nav.html"/>Will automatically include src/_imports/_nav.html wholesale, and also parse it (i.e., _nav.html can include
other includes). The underscore is unnecessary.
There are also markdown includes:
<nowclaire-md-include path="hello.md"/>will render hello.md as html and drop it in that spot same as a regular include.
<nowclaire-template name="_imports/template.html"/>
<nowclaire-block name="content">
Hello, world!
</nowclaire-block>Will render with this template:
<DOCTYPE !html>
<body>
<nowclaire-slot name="content"/>
</body>into
<DOCTYPE !html>
<body>
Hello, world!
</body>Given a file like this:
<nowclaire-template name="_imports/template.html"/>
<nowclaire-block name="content"/>
<nowclaire-markdown
slot="content"
directory="posts"
title="title"
sort="date"
order="descending"
template="_imports/post.html"
/>
</nowclaire-block>The file in question will render with an unordered list of links, using the title variable from the frontmatter as
the anchor text, the template as the template for the rendered markdown (assuming markdown files in the directory),
the date variable from the frontmatter as the sort key, in order descending, and sticking the rendered markdown
in the slot content in the markdown template _imports/post.html.
Finally, you can use variables from a meta file in the root of src anywhere:
site_title=bluesky
<h1>${meta.site_title}</h1>will render
<h1>bluesky</h1>and in the template for markdown posts you can use the frontmatter variables like so:
<h1>${frontmatter.title}</h1>And that's all there is to it.