Building a Minimalist Static Site Generator with Emacs and Org-mode
By
spudlyo
1mo ago· 47 min readenInsight
100/100
Golden Brown
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Hand-rolled, kettle-boiled, baked to perfection. Worth every minute at the bakery.
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Summary
The article critiques the modern web development ecosystem for its complexity and bloat, advocating for a return to simpler, text-based approaches. The author rejects mainstream JavaScript frameworks and static site generators in favor of using Emacs and Org-mode to create a minimalist, efficient static site generator that leverages plain text and familiar tools. The piece explores the philosophy of simplicity in web development and presents a technical approach to building websites without unnecessary dependencies or complexity.
Key quotes
· 5 pulledThe modern web is choking on its own exhaust. Somewhere along the line, we traded the elegance of plain text for gigabytes of node_modules/, labyrinthine JavaScript frameworks, and bloated Static Site Generators that insist you learn their esoteric templating languages just to write a blog post.
I didn't want another framework. I refused to hoard dependencies like some doomsday prepper. I wanted the comfort of my text editor.
Specifically, I wanted Emacs. Forget the text editor label; it's a Lisp machine, a programmable environment that can be molded to fit any workflow.
The solution was staring me in the face: Org-mode. It's not just a note-taking system; it's a literate programming environment, a publishing platform, and a task manager all rolled into one.
This isn't about nostalgia for the 'good old days' of the web. It's about recognizing that complexity has costs, and sometimes the simplest solution is the most powerful.
The hacker's Org-centric SSG
