
Create a website using Dropbox and a text editor - bjonathan
http://boagworld.com/technology/create-a-website-using-dropbox-and-a-text-editor/
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mambodog
For a static site that one can drag-and-drop to, I'd just use S3's new
'website' bucket configuration with CyberDuck as the S3 client (folder sync or
drag-and-drop files).

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JonnieCache
This would be ideal if only cyberduck didn't eat so much RAM. I prefer
Interarchy.

<http://nolobe.com/interarchy/>

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calloc
Cyberduck is free, this piece of software isn't.

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protomyth
Some people feel that paying money for something that works better for them or
causes less problems is worth it.

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bigfudge
Yes, but if you're going to pay for an sftp client then Transmit is far
superior. Mounts ssh volumes etc.

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protomyth
Oh, I wasn't going on about that specific client (I am also really happy with
Transmit) just about the thought that people need to be warned about paid
software.

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ludwigvan
What about using github pages? <http://pages.github.com/>

I am thinking of moving my blog there (statically generated jekyll site). Can
anyone comment on whether it's practical or not?

(For some history on Jekyll, read this article: [http://tom.preston-
werner.com/2008/11/17/blogging-like-a-hac...](http://tom.preston-
werner.com/2008/11/17/blogging-like-a-hacker.html) )

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bootload
_"... I am thinking of moving my blog there (statically generated jekyll
site). Can anyone comment on whether it's practical or not? ..."_

Practical yes, you can even use your own domain, cf "Custom Domains". Jekyll
is a great bit of software, I've read through all the source to see how it
works.

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jasonkester
Why add dropbox into the mix? You're essentially editing files directly on the
server, since every change gets propagated live whether you want it to or now.
If that's what you want to do (and remember, you never should), why not just
do it directly?

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hitonagashi
Rudimentary version control?

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davemcdermid
Hey, had no idea my little app had made it onto here.

Its running on ASP.NET MVC3, using MarkdownSharp to render the content.

Would have put more info on the site if I'd known I was gonna get so much
traffic today!

Dave

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limmeau
This service apparently runs a Markdown-to-HTML converter on your Dropbox
subdirectory whenever you change a Markdown file.

What about client-side rendering of Markdown? You'd have an HTML file which
includes a separate Markdown-to-HTML converting JavaScript, and an invisible
pre containing the markdown. That HTML file, consisting mostly of Markdown
text, can then be edited in a simple text editor.

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burgerbrain
So instead of rendering the markdown to html once on your computer, you're
going to do it every single time on your users' computers? What possible
benefit could there be for this, besides unnecessarily burning peoples CPUs?

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mitjak
You don't need to regenerate any HTML and changes are instant. Also, I
honestly don't think one can burn through too much CPU with occasional
JavaScript. This is some hardcore environmentalism.

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burgerbrain
It's not environmentalism, it's just common sense politeness. There is no
reason a users web-browser should have to render something _twice_ just for
static content. All just to save you a single `make` before uploading.

I've been joking for a few years that it's only a matter of time until some
joker implements a browser in javascript/html5 and the rest of the web
development community enthusiastically adopts using it as standard practice.
I'm starting to fear that this is more of a possibility than I initially
thought.

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limmeau
I doubt that translating a few hundred lines of Markdown into HTML with an
efficient JavaScript JIT is noticeably more expensive than, say, decoding a
big JPEG picture or displaying a Flash ad, or having menu items slide in and
out.

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burgerbrain
1) It's the principle of the matter. 2) That it might be even comparable to
those things is a pretty strong argument against it, afaic.

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ohadpr
I think this is a great step in the right direction, publishing is getting
simplified and with the advent of cheap storage that can be easily placed
behind a webserver the options for static websites are quite interesting.

I foresee more services of this type and more power to you guys for building
this, I highly recommend exploring and iterating around more simple ways for
people to 'create webpages' by simply dropping 'something' 'somewhere.

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Brajeshwar
For simplified quick publishing, have you guys seen <http://pen.io/>
(Participant at the recent Launch Conference)

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feint
pen.io doesn't yet support markdown, but I'm planning on adding support for
it.

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ique
The only real info on the webpage as to how the pages are generated is "Pages
are driven by Markdown rendered into HTML templates."

Looking at the demo template all the content is in txt files and there's html
templates with {{tags}} in them like that.

It would be interesting to know what's behind it all, it kind of looks like
jekyll. But I'm not familiar enough to say so.

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bricestacey
Double curly braces makes me think mustache: <http://mustache.github.com/>

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ozziegooen
I've been using Dropbox to create a rails app with two other developers. We
upload to Github every few days.

This is a bit crude, but it's been insanely simple. I like being able to see
updates in quasi-real time.

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macca321
I would like to record for posterity that I was coding up pretty much exactly
the same thing over the weekend without knowing this already existed, so when
I launch please go easy. I have commits as proof!

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unicornporn
With this, remember that there's a 10GB/day bandwidth cap for free accounts.
<https://www.dropbox.com/help/45>

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flashgordon
Actually this makes me wonder, why dont most web-views of VCSs dont come with
a web based text editor? Would be ideal when working behind firewalls/proxies.

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StuffMaster
That is one oversized, vertically challenged site. Ugh.

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urbanjunkie
This quote from the article about dropbox..."Even though overpriced in many
ways, it is simple and easy-to-use and save my asked [sic] a number of times."

Seriously? $99 per year for 50GB is overpriced?

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elithrar
It's free for up to 8GB (with referrals) — which is _very_ good value in my
books.

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user24
I'm up to 11GB free, it's possible. I've sent them over 150 referrals, most of
whom've completed signup. Plus doing things like taking the tutorial, etc.

The referral model by dropbox must be awesome for customer acquisition.

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limmeau
150 referrals, wow. Do you experience some kind of saturation by now, in that
it becomes increasingly harder to find a potential new user who hasn't yet
subscribed?

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user24
actually I don't put any work into getting referrals at all, so I don't know.
I wrote a blog post about it and put the link on twitter a few times, and the
referrals just keep pouring in - I'd love to know where they all come from to
be honest! I've hit the limit as to my free space allowance now.

