"Let there be light" (Genesis 1:3)
This is the first time I am writing something here on my personal blog.
I am still learning how to use Zola, the SSG this website uses.
So far I've been impressed with how easy it is to write stuff in Markdown and have it automagically converted to HTML. With how bloated HTML has become, it is truly a blessing.
Now, I will address some questions you may have:
🔗Why does your website look so basic?
First of all it does not. It has a style of its own and it is highly functional in my opinion.
I do not need dynamic content refresh on my website nor fancy animations or analytics which are all features offered by JavaScript. I want it to be simple and minimal.
🔗Why did you go with Zola?
- I wanted to use a non-JavaScript Static Site Generator (SSG)
The most popular SSGs such as Next.JS, Gatsby, Hexo are all written in JS. The problem is that all of them have too many features for my liking.
Also, given that I was going for 100% non-JS website, it wouldn't make sense to build it with a tool written in it. That would be, as Thanos said, an "I used the stones to destroy the stones" moment.
- It is written in Rust
While for a small personal website choosing an SSG based on what language it is written is irrelevant, it still caught my eye.
Zola claims that because it is written in Rust, this SSG scales really well peformance-wise the more content gets added to the website.
This basic site of mine gets compiled in under 60ms. Impressive.