

Show HN: Pagoda, a Zen-mode Jekyll blog editor - alagu
https://github.com/alagu/pagoda#pagoda-----

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wasd
I only had a chance to gloss over it but it looks great. I love the fact that
it uses Jekyll and not rails like Obvtse.

Can you use Jekyll plugins?

Does it output a static website?

Is it possible to write the posts using mark down instead of the web editor?

Not so much a question but a suggestion, you should have a version of this
hosted on AWS/Heroku so people can see it live.

~~~
alagu
_Can you use Jekyll plugins?_

I haven't tested with plugins. But I doubt if it would work. It works great
for Vanilla Jekyll with Markdown.

 _Does it output a static website?_

This is independent of your jekyll site generator. What it does is, gives you
an editor for your files inside _posts. It understands yaml matter and saves
in Jekyll format.

 _Is it possible to write the posts using mark down instead of the web
editor?_

The web editor isn't rich text. You edit in Markdown in the web editor. It is
an easier way of creating new posts.

 _Not so much a question but a suggestion, you should have a version of this
hosted on AWS/Heroku so people can see it live._

Totally agree. I had thoughts on hosting a demo site. I'll do it.

~~~
wasd
Would be you interested in teaming up to make a separate project to provide
the layout to make your blog look like a svbtle blog? I used to Obvtse but I
didn't like it because it the over head of a Rails application.

~~~
alagu
Apart from svbtle, there are lot of themes that are unique and beautiful (of
course with jekyll as backend):

\- <http://clayallsopp.com/posts/rubymotion-year-one/>

\- <http://paulstamatiou.com/responsive-retina-blog-design>

\- <http://zachholman.com/posts/left/>

I think dcurtis should be already pissed off that I ripped his design. So not
sure about doing it again :)

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ioddly
This looks very nice, I think I'll be using this to write my blog posts in the
future. Just one whinge: Jekyll 1.0 now has support for a _drafts folder. You
might want to consider using that instead of 'published'.

~~~
alagu
Thanks for bringing this up. I haven't upgraded to Jekyll 1.0. Will add this
soon.

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kurtfunai
This looks great, I'm definitely going to give it a try. Thank you!

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dcalacci
This is great. I started working on something very similar to this a few weeks
ago. Your project is much more mature, so I may end up contributing.

~~~
hablahaha
Samesies. Sad but happy to see someone is further along than I was.

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josephers
If you had this as a hosted service, I'd sign my clients up for it!

~~~
alagu
That is a good idea. But where do you have your jekyll blog repo? Github?

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Void_
So I guess "Zen" is SF-hipster for "simple" now?

~~~
dragonwriter
> So I guess "Zen" is SF-hipster for "simple" now?

Well, if you eliminate or substantially expand the geographical restriction,
and consider "now" to be for the last few decades or so, sure.

The route to the usage may be kind of weird, but it hasn't been _novel_ to use
"zen" for "simple" or "minimalistic" for quite some time.

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kumarski
wish I wasn't such a noob. good job on the typography and thanks for
contributing.

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xrd
Very cool.

~~~
xrd
Edit on your android phone: <http://blog.teddyhyde.com>

~~~
xrd
Though, I have to say, Pagoda by itself is an awesome project because it
supports mobile devices as well.

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bevenky
This is awesome!

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prollyignored
<rant>

This "pop" usage of zen hurts my religious sensibilities. zen is about being a
lotus in a dirt-pool.

I use a custom aspell dictionary for writing in German.

I use a word count status bar.

I use dumb vim aliases to correct "fro" to "for".

I have aliases for unicode symbols.

I have a single bash function that does the editing and push on save.

Isn't my dumb solution better than yours, for me atleast ?

WTF is so zen about full-screen ?

Why aren't you solving _real_ problems for bloggers, getting heard in a sea of
me-too's, separating advertisers(propaganda) from truth.

</rant>

edit: Grammar based correction. I'd pay for that, having corrected some just
now :)

~~~
alagu
_This "pop" usage of zen hurts my religious sensibilities. zen is about a
being a lotus in a dirt-pool._

I'm sorry about it. I assume the word is also used in a sense of being calm
and out of clutter.

 _Is't my dumb solution better than yours, for me atleast ?_

If your solution works for you, it is definitely better. If you think others
also would subscribe to your solution, do post it.

 _WTF is so zen about full-screen ?_

IMHO, Zen is not just about fullscreen. It is about how much minimalistic and
uncluttered your experience is.

 _Why aren't you solving real problems for bloggers, getting heard in a sea of
me-too's, separating propaganda from truth._

I didn't start this project to solve problems for bloggers, there are plenty
of them solving it really well. It is a niche problem that I had.

~~~
CodeMage
_I didn't start this project to solve problems for bloggers, there are plenty
of them solving it really well. It is a niche problem that I had._

This. The startup-oriented audience sometimes forgets that people don't always
start a project that scratches a universal itch. Sometimes you just want to
make a small bit of your own life better and then share the solution with the
world, just in case it helps someone else, too.

