2018.11.04 - First Blog Entry and used Toolchain

This is the first Blog entry here, it’s more of a test for me to see whether this style of website-generation works for me. But because there is no other content here right now, I’ll let it stay :-).

Used Toolchain

Like you can see in the footer, I created this website using only sphinx and the alabaster theme. Usually this sphinx is used as tool to generate source-code documentation (for example, you might know it from its use in the python universe), but I figured it also makes for a nice tool to generate websites. My hope is that this will stay longer active and maintained as toolchain for static website generation than many of the other tools that have been created for the same purpose in the past.

And an other huge plus is - at least in my books - that the basic website works without any JavaScript and cookies. Sphinx also adds some JavaScript sauce to the mix, but I found in a way that makes the website still perfectly usable if you use browser add-ons like uMatrix or NoScript.

There is not as much support for pure website generation and content management in sphinx than in other tools that specialise in this, but I think as long as you understand python and you don’t want to get too fancy with it, it should be fine. Apart from python, which is used as implementation language for sphinx, and as configuration-language for the project/website, the content is written in reStructuredText. This is a markup language similar to markdown, but with more options for structured writing.

For reference, here is some websites I used as resource in the course to create this:

• echorand: Sphinx as a Static Site Generator

• Numerically speaking: Creating a static website with Sphinx

• westga: Template Driven Websites with Sphinx

• Shichao’s Blog: Create a personal website with Sphinx

Have a nice day.