Static site generators

Static site generators are great. A better name might be ... dynamic, static site generators. Being able to use dynamic methods to bake a static site is, really, underappreciated. I did not always think that. When I was building MBLZ, it had a CMS. We were convinced the benefit of a CMS, so customers could drive the content, was a worthy goal. It was not.

I used Middleman for years. It is great. It follows the Rails motto of following convention over configuration. Like Ruby, and Rails, Middleman, just gets me 💘. When tasked with creating multiple sites for customers of MBLZ, I was not looking forward to creating a new design for each (about 10 sites at the time). I'm not one for debating the philosophical differences of blueblue and skyblue. So, I tweaked Middleman to support multiple sites. It uses Bootstrap - so customers can choose any theme they want. When I make changes to the core templates (upgrading Bootstrap) - all sites benefit. It was kind of a win, win, win.

Sites I created with Middleman

• https://mblz.com/
• https://thespaniardtreeservice.com
• https://paradisenurseryllc.com
• https://naturalwaysa.com/
• https://mag-realestate.com/
• https://naturalskincaresa.com/
• https://cynthiamoseleylmt.com/

Until Tailwind came along 😎

And now, there is Astro. It gets 'closer to the bone' of what a SSG should do. I've been taken aback at how it simplifies things. It whittles out the unnecessary bits. It is Javascript from nose to tail. I like Javascript, but if it was Ruby I might love it.