2.9 KiB
+++ title = "The appeal of wysiwyg" author = ["Anne"] date = 2025-03-16T00:00:00+01:00 lastmod = 2025-10-31T23:20:49+01:00 draft = false +++
For a DIY kind of girl like me, Hugo is the best. Hugo is a static website generator that gives you complete control of its output --- right from the command line. What more could a girl wish for?
Even better, you can use your favorite text editor to write new content or tweak your theme. While I love the command line, I do understand the appeal of wysiwyg: it's nice to be able see how your content will look before publishing it online. But do you really need a full-blown content management system with all the bells and whistles for that? Nope, actually you don't. Hugo can help you out just as easily!
My workflow
So what does my workflow look like? In a nutshell: I create some new content on my laptop, check out how it renders locally in my browser, and when I'm satisfied, push it to Gitea --- which automaticaly deploys it online.
Preferably, I write in Emacs, typing away on my laptop sitting somewhere cozy, with a cup of coffee within reach. On my laptop, I have a local repo clone of my blog. The git repository lives on Gitea on my private server, which also serves my blog to the world.
Before I start writing, I cd into the root of my local copy of my blog's repository and fire up the Hugo web server:
hugo server --buildDrafts --navigateToChanged
The Hugo embedded web server watches your files for changes and renders new content in real time. To see what's happening, you can point your browser to http://localhost:1313.
The buildDrafts option makes Hugo render draft posts as well. And even better: navigateToChanged redirects your browser instantly to your last edit. Babes, that's so nifty!
Then I kindly ask Hugo to add some new content and start writing:
hugo new content posts/my-new-post.md
emacs content/posts/my-new-post.md
Every time I save my changes in Emacs, ox-hugo exports the org files to markdown files for Hugo. The Hugo server then renders the new content, so I can immediatly see what my writings look like in my browser. Wysiwyg enough for me!
Get it out there
When I'm done writing, I commit and push my edits to the repository in Gitea:
git add content/posts/my-new-post.md
git commit -m "Added my new post"
git push
Gitea then automagically gets Hugo to rebuild my blog and publish it online. It really is that simple.
Note to self: don't forget about draft = true in the front matter of my new post :P
If you are curious, you can find the source code of this blog here: https://git.minded.net/anne/blog.minded.net.