This post is about This is a post about my own experience with development and static site.
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 deeply felled in love with Eleventy 💘, one of the best SSG in my opinion, 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.
