Static Blog Generation: 9 Weeks In
28 Apr 2013 Charles Choi
9 weeks in using Pelican to generate my blog and so far I dig it: I've been able to write more and write better with it.
Thinking about why, the reasons come down to:
- Being able to define and automate your own workflows.
- Being able to use Markdown to format your source files.
- Easy customization (especially if you have a background in Python, templating and web development).
- Using source code control (git in my case) to manage/sanity check what you post.
- It's fast. Having worked with Python web frameworks like Zope (and Plone later on), TurboGears, and Django, it's easy to get stuff initially up and running but the price you pay is slow run-time performance, especially for content that doesn't need to be dynamic in the first place. Not all content needs to be stashed in a database.
Static blog generation with a tool like Pelican is not for everybody: you really need to be comfortable with working like a software developer. But if you're already there then you'll likely find yourself pleased with it.
