

Introducing Stasis: A new way to build static sites with Ruby - winton
http://stasis.me

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gorm
This looks like a very cool project, but how many of these tools do we need
and how can we differentiate between them? Just in the Ruby world we now have:
Webgen, Webby, Nanoc, Staticmatic, Jekyll, Ace, SassRoku, Hobix, Middleman +++
If we include Python, Node and Perl, there should be plenty more to choose
from.

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tptacek
Do any of those have the trivial controller/directory model that Stasis has?
It seems like a major win.

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urza
Blogofile (python) has something like that.

<http://www.blogofile.com/>

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sleight42
I've used nanoc more than a few times. On seeing this, after first I thought
"Why would the community need this??"

However...

I dig the "controller"-based preprocessing and, especially, that the served
pages are then processed through the typical host of rendering engines.

This should feel very familiar to anyone who has done any Rails or Sinatra.

High marks for obviousness! I may have to try this out!

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chrido
like it, but can't use it emotionally, probably other german speakers also

name reminds to much at the cruelty the stasi has done.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi>

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callmeed
Looks really cool. I've been frustrated with Jekyll too.

Question: how would you create an index/archive page with links to other
posts/pages (if you did want to use it as a blog)?

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waffle_ss
Cool project. I just starting transitioning my blog from the bloated Wordpress
to a static site using nanoc. Any (current or planned) benefits of using
Stasis over nanoc or jekyll?

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winton
I created Stasis because jekyll wasn't versatile enough and nanoc seems a bit
overly complex for what it is doing. I am trying to strike a good balance with
Stasis.

~~~
socratic
Could you go into a little more detail about how Jekyll isn't/wasn't versatile
enough? Maybe a use case or two where it failed (or was too complicated) for
you?

I'm actually about to learn Jekyll to make a blog today, so I'm very curious.
My primary reasons for going Jekyll are that (a) it seems to have the most
mindshare (in the Ruby world and in general) and (b) I can just deploy using
git with Github Pages.

Relatedly, if anyone is a Jekyll user (which seems pretty common around here),
are there any plugins/modifications I should be using?

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josegonzalez
I'm a very big proponent of the Jekyll approach, and made a few plugins for my
own use
([https://github.com/josegonzalez/josediazgonzalez.com/tree/ma...](https://github.com/josegonzalez/josediazgonzalez.com/tree/master/_plugins)).
I also started the list of plugins on the Jekyll Wiki
(<https://github.com/mojombo/jekyll/wiki/Plugins>), so I recommend you check
both of those out.

Stasis seems nice, but I'm not sure the changes I'd have to implement to move
to it would be worth the trouble.

~~~
socratic
Excellent. Thanks!

Any in particular that you think are sensible defaults? I looked at that
plugin page earlier and it seemed like a lot to read. What are the core 3--5
plugins that anyone writing a blog should be using?

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macrael
Does Stasis (or any of the other tools in this space) allow you to run a
service on your web server that you could post new markdown files to, kicking
off a recompile of your static site? I'd like to be able to post a new entry
without having to hit the command line, re-render everything and rsnyc changes
back up.

~~~
JangoSteve
It looks like this could be done easily enough with the stasis server mode
(<http://stasis.me/#more>).

~~~
trebor
But only if it uses Redis? You probably need a backup solution for folks w/o
things like Redis.

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overshard
I think too few companies are throwing out static websites because they think
they need something "dynamic" such as a flashy contact form. If they just used
static websites and just put an email address and such by which they could be
contacted they could save quite a bit on development time and cost of hosting.

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bherms
I've never used a static site builder in any language, but I'd be tempted to
use this. The only problem I see is that, off the top of my head, I can't
think of a use for all these extra features. What sort of use cases do people
use these generators for (outside of the blogs some have mentioned)?

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riffraff
I've built a minimal "online presence" website for a friend's business with
nanoc. It does not need any dynamism, since basically it's just: home,
contacts page, directions page and products page (unlikely to change more than
once a year).

It has the side effect against a joomla install or whatever that if he wants
to change something I have to do it for him, but since this event is pretty
rare and non time sensitive it's not a big deal.

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developish
If this works like I think it might, it could be a great tool for building
mobile web apps with coffee script

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thenduks
Everyone seems to have one of these static site generators these days.
Probably a lot of people, myself for instance, who have written their own over
the years as well.

This one looks like it has some interesting ideas related to pre-processing
using the 'controller' idea.

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cmer
If you're about to overlook this because "it's just another damn static site
generator", think again. I almost did, but I was very impressed with Statis!
It sure is worth a look.

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nathansobo
Gorgeous! I will definitely give it a try when I need to build a static site
for the library I'm working on. I like the scrolling effect with the links on
the documentation site.

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jondot
Looks very nice and aesthetic. Simple to get started, way to go!

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bbq
Sweet. This seems to be exactly what I was about to make a much worse version
of myself. Good work.

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tvon
It appears to be slashdotted.

~~~
winton
Hosted on GitHub pages, so blame them :)

