Selfhosted @lemmy.world ctag @lemmy.sdf.org 1mo ago

Static site generator for an idiot who doesn't want to learn a new templating language just to have a blog?

Hi,

I'm interested in setting up a small static-site-generator site. Looked at 11ty recently and feel pretty uncomfortable with the amount of javascript and "funny language" churn just to make some html happen.

Do you know of any alternative that's simpler / easier / less complicated dependencies? Or do you have an approach to 11ty that you think I should try?

Thanks in advance for any input, it's appreciated!

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I use Hugo and I've been pretty happy with it. It has a lot of layout templates you can use out of the box so you don't need to learn a new templating language unless you want to do customizations. I write blogs in markdown and it's automatically rendered and published.
- But as soon as you do want to customize it, you're stuck learning one of the most esoteric languages that wasn't meant as a joke.
  
  Thanks for the heads up. That feels like the same roadblock I got with 11ty. It ran OK on markdown, but one you dig into how wide the customizations go I couldn't keep up.
- I used Hugo for my portfolio site, and it's great if you like an existing theme, but making one from scratch is a challenge. The documentation is unclear and there's a chicken and egg problem about how to learn Hugo.
  
  The go templating is OK, I prefer other syntax but it works.
  
  Good to know. Thanks!
- Thanks for the recommendation. I'll definitely take a look at Hugo.

62 comments