Finally, Jekyll
Phase 1: Wordpress
I started with Wordpress because that was the only blogging platform I knew of (that I could heavily customize). A few weeks and a few major designs later, I had my blog up and running. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked. The problem, however, was that the platform sucked for technical blogging. Putting in code itself was a pain. Moreover, I felt restricted to typing on a very substandard editor. It just didn’t work the way I would’ve liked it to.
Phase 2: Octopress
I never got started with Octopress. Customizing the default theme was a major headache, and after a few hackish attempts, I stopped trying. It never felt right. There was too much jazz with plugins I didn’t need, structure I didn’t want, and octopress magic that I didn’t care about. It’s good for people who just want some out-of-the-box functionality to get things going. Nothing wrong with that, but I have been seeing too much of the default Octopress theme elsewhere to have it on my blog as well, which meant I HAD to customize it far beyond what it looks like.
Phase 3: Jekyll
Being so frustrated with the status quo, I made a list of what I felt I really needed from a blogging platform
- Markdown Support
- Code Syntax Highlighting
- No dependence on a web-based interface
- Support for heavy customization
Wordpress sucks at the first three, Octopress sucks at the fourth, but Jekyll is good with all of the things I need. Hence, I decided to go with Jekyll, which is about as barebones as one can get. Accompanying it, I made the simplest theme I could, taking inspiration from Daring Fireball, Dustin Curtis and my previous theme, Sense. Still thinking of a name for it, but I like it for it’s simplicity. The whole thing was hacked up in less than a day.
P.S. It’s ridiculous that design held me back from writing, but it’s good to be back, writing again.
