Sharing my return to static site development. Why I ditched complexity for speed, simplicity, and full control over my web projects.
From Zero to Hero or at least not a zero anymore!
From the Highway to the Classic Road.
If you didn't read my About section, you can quickly guess from the tagline that I'm a self-taught developer.
I didn't have a clue about the amazing world of code, or even heard about HTML, CSS or JS. So with a will to understand, after being played and robbed by a so-called developer, my first task was to learn English! Oh, yeah 🤣
After acquiring a basic level of understanding, the real deal was to confront this
nightmare, the code 👻
From where should I begin?!
What should I
learn first?!
How to create a website?!
...
So many questions with no clear
answer for me 😱
Since I wanted to start quick (newbie error), I took the wrong path and started to seek for
easy ways to create a website (don't want to talk about it, very bad memory). It took me
a while to realise that this was not a good choice and that I'm not really
learning...
A friend talked about a tool for creating dynamic websites called Joomla, I
created my first website with Joomla and coded a little bit, but Joomla was (for me)
illogical (not clear/consistent), so I tried Drupal (a cannon to kill a fly), then
discovered WordPress.
I don't know why, but I felled at home with WordPress, especially with the Codex, the
Forums and tons of tutorials everywhere on the Web, the nightmare was turning to a dream
coming true...
Meanwhile, my English was improving with all the readings and my
experience was getting pleasant and smoother.
So I decided to make
my first plugin
(2016), then
my first theme (2017), and I did
it with a lot of difficulties... I wanted to quit many times, but a voice
in my head was telling me: "continue, you've already spent a lot of time over this and you are so close,
don't give up now!".
Since then, I've helped as much as I can other people, the same way great developers
helped me by pointing to the right direction.
But, yes there is always a but, I've
written again my plugin and my theme from ground up, because I was improving, and everything
with bells and whistles in the code world became (for me) useless.
I was turning to
usability over functionality, simplicity over complexity and accessibility over bling bling
code!
Last year (2019), I was watching a lot of great developers turning their personal sites to
static and a growing interest for
Static Site Generators and
Headless CMS.
I was wondering why?
I
had a .tk domain that stopped working from one day to the next! Another lesson in this
world...
So, it was time to turn over and try the static world. I've found myself
in a completely new playground and didn't want to waste time, again, just to output
basic HTML (another newbie error)...
After trying to totally code my site without an
SSG, I figured out that it was a time killer and surely not the best way today.
Coming
from WordPress, I wanted a CMS to output my site, so I've tried
jocms and Publii but I
was not satisfied at all by the result nor the limitations...
In 2021, after trying
some SSG, I found Eleventy, reputed for it's
freedom, power and simplicity.
Interesting post:
Choosing the Best Static Site Generator.
I was working on a new WordPress theme, and decided to bake it on the Classic Road and use
it for me as a beginning point to my new site.
Big, bold and clear 😉
I really hope that you like it.