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1 Blog reboot with Blogofile
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2 ##########################
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3
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4 :date: 2011-04-17 14:10
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5 :tags: Blogging, Blogofile
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6 :slug: blog-reboot-with-blogofile
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7 :author: Brian Neal
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8
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9 Welcome to my new blog. I've been meaning to start blogging again for some time, especially since
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10 the new version of SurfGuitar101.com_ went live almost two months ago. But the idea of dealing with
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11 WordPress was putting me off. Don't get me wrong, WordPress really is a nice general purpose
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12 blogging platform, but it didn't really suit me anymore.
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13
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14 I considered creating a new blog in Django_, but I really want to spend all my time and energy on
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15 improving SurfGuitar101 and not tweaking my blog. I started thinking about doing something
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16 simpler.
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17
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18 Almost by accident, I discovered Blogofile_ by seeing it mentioned in my Twitter feed. Blogofile is
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19 a static blog generator written in Python. After playing with it for a while, I decided to use it
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20 for a blog reboot. It is simple to use, Pythonic, and very configurable. The advantages for me to go
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21 with a static blog are:
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22
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23 1. No more dealing with WordPress and plugin updates. To be fair, WordPress is very easy to update
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24 these days. Plugins are still a pain, and are often needed to display source code.
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25 2. I can write my blog posts in Markdown_ or reStructuredText_ using my `favorite editor`_ instead
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26 of some lame Javascript editor. Formatting source code is dead simple now.
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27 3. All of my blog content is under version control.
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28 4. Easier to work offline.
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29 5. Easier to deploy. Very little (if any) server configuration.
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30 6. I can use version control with a post-commit hook to deploy the site.
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31
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32 Disadvantages:
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33
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34 1. Not as "dynamic". For my blog, this isn't really a problem. Comments can be handled by a service
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35 like Disqus_.
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36 2. Regenerating the entire site can take time. This is only an issue if you have a huge blog with
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37 years of content. A fresh blog takes a fraction of a second to build, and I don't anticipate
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38 this affecting me for some time, if ever. I suspect Blogofile will be improved to include caching
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39 and smarter rebuilds in the future.
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40
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41 It should be noted that Blogofile seems to require Python 2.6 or later. My production server is
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42 still running 2.5, and I can't easily change this for a while. This really only means I can't use
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43 Mercurial with a *changegroup* hook to automatically deploy the site. This should only be a temporary
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44 issue; I hope to upgrade the server in the future.
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45
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46 Blogofile comes with some scripts for importing WordPress blogs. Looking over my old posts, some of
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47 them make me cringe. I think I'll save importing them for a rainy day.
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48
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49 The bottom line is, this style of blogging suits me as a programmer. I get to use all the same
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50 tools I use to write code: a good text editor, the same markup I use for documentation, and version
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51 control. Deployment is a snap, and I don't have a database or complicated server setup to maintain.
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52 Hopefully this means I will blog more.
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53
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54 Finally, I'd like to give a shout-out to my friend `Trevor Oke`_ who just switched to a static blog
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55 for many of the same reasons.
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56
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57
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58 .. _SurfGuitar101.com: http://surfguitar101.com
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59 .. _Django: http://djangoproject.com
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60 .. _Blogofile: http://blogofile.com
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61 .. _Markdown: http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/
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62 .. _reStructuredText: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html
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63 .. _favorite editor: http://www.vim.org
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64 .. _Disqus: http://disqus.com/
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65 .. _Trevor Oke: http://trevoroke.com/2011/04/12/converting-to-jekyll.html
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