An introduction to Jekyll, a ruby gem and static site generator for building blogs and other simple static sites.

1. Blogging for Hackers
An introduction to Jekyll

2. “Simple, blog-aware, static site generator”
Simple: Everything is just plain text files
Blog-aware: Fits blog use-case ideally, but
other purposes can still work
Static sites: no backend, no cms
What is Jekyll

3. Why Jekyll
Simplicity
Free hosting with github pages
Markdown files are awesome and flexible
Blog offline without distraction
Own everything
Blog in vim (or emacs or sublime or whatever)

4. ● It’s easy to read
● Fast to write
● Translates directly to what you’re going
● Great for taking notes and then translating
those notes to blog posts
● grep...vim (or emacs)...
Side Note: Markdown is awesome

5. Getting Started - Fast!
gem install jekyll
jekyll new blog
cd blog
jekyll serve
done
demo:
https://gist.github.com/5601a105a7ea645663dc

6. Getting Started...making it prettier!
Customize the default
(demo of some basics):
https://gist.github.com/7a33b25e6cd705d64289
Or use a theme.

7. Themes!
Which themes to use
● The default is actually really nice now!
● check out jekyllthemes.org for a catalog of free themes
● The Hyde theme is great for projects
Two options
● fork a theme: usually have their own instructions
o The one I use is particularly well-documented
o mmistakes.github.io/minimal-mistakes/theme-setup/
● Github hosting premade themes
https://pages.github.com/

8. Github Hosting
Free for one user and as many projects as you want
For user
● repo named username.github.io
● just push to master and you’re done
For Projects
● Same repo as the project
● gh-pages branch...push (to gh-pages) and you’re done

9. A little bit of vim...
Demo of my (evolving) jekyll workflow:
https://gist.github.com/63e64ecd406ad777ecfb
My dotfiles are on github:
www.github.com/smcabrera/castillo-cabrera

10. Resources
• Great intro here: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/08/01/build-blog-
jekyll-github-pages
• github pages--very easy guide to getting started with free github hosting. You
can also set up a blog or project site--with themes!--without touching the
command line: https://pages.github.com/
• Jekyll bootstrap: http://jekyllbootstrap.com/usage/blog-configuration.html
• ruhoh project: http://ruhoh.com/docs/2/
• The original blog post describing the inception of the project:
http://tom.preston-werner.com/2008/11/17/blogging-like-a-hacker.html
• Jekyll Now: Build a jekyll blog in minutes without touching the command line
https://github.com/barryclark/jekyll-now

11. Resources (contd)...
• Google analytics with jekyll:
https://developmentseed.org/blog/google-analytics-jekyll-
plugin/
• This vim plugin is awesome and is especially nice for
jekyll. It understands jekyll markdown formatting and has
great support for code blocks. Find it here:
https://github.com/gabrielelana/vim-markdown
• Multilingual this post discusses how:
https://developmentseed.org/blog/multilingual-jekyll-sites/