---
title: Hello, World (from Wordpress, then Jekyll, then Hakyll, then Hugo)
author: Chris Hodapp
date: "2014-02-06"
---

I started this post in February 2014.  Actually, I might have started
it in July 2013 (while sitting in a Bruegger's Bagels on the same day
that I met up with two people from Urbanalta in what would later
become my full-time job, to be precise).  I really don't remember.

Here goes another migration of my sparse content from the past 8
(er... 10) years.  This time, I'm giving up my Wordpress instance that
I've migrated around 3 or 4 times (from wordpress.com, then Dreamhost,
then Linode, then tortois.es), and completely failed to migrate this
time (I neglected to back up Wordpress' MySQL tables).  I still have
an old XML backup, but it's such a crufty mess at this point that I'd
rather start fresh and import in some old content.

Wordpress is a fine platform and it produces some beautiful results.
However, I feel like it is very heavy and complex for what I need, and
I have gotten got myself into many train-wrecks and rabbit-holes
trying to manage aspects of its layout and behavior and media
handling.

My nose is already buried in Emacs for most else that I write.  It's
the editor I work most quickly in.  I'm already somewhat familiar with
git.  So, I am giving [Jekyll](http://jekyllrb.com/) a try *(later
note: now using [Hakyll](https://jaspervdj.be/hakyll/) instead.)*.
Having a static site pre-generated from Markdown just seems like it
would fit my workflow better, and not require me to switch to a
web-based editor.  I'm going to have to learn some HTML and CSS
anyway.

(I phrase this as if it were a brilliant flash of insight on my part.
No, it's something I started in July and then procrastinated on until
now, when my Wordpress has been down for months.)

*(And then procrastinated another 2 years for good measure.)*

A vaguely relevant
[issue](https://github.com/joyent/smartos-live/issues/275) just
steered me to the existence of
[TRAMP](https://www.gnu.org/software/tramp/) which allows me to edit
remote files in Emacs.  I just did *C-x C-f*
`/ssh:username@whatever.com:/home/username` from a stock Emacs
installation, and now I'm happily editing this Markdown file, which is
on my VPS, from my local Emacs.  For some reason, I find this
incredibly awesome, even though things like remote X, NX, RDP, and
sshfs have been around for quite some time now.  (When stuff starts
screwing up, M-x tramp-clean-up-all-connection seems to help a bit.)

I collect lots of notes and I enjoy writing and explaining, so why
don't I maintain a blog where I actually post more often than once
every 18 months?  I don't really have a good answer.  I just know that
this crosses my mind about once a week.  But okay, Steve Yegge, you
get
[your wish](https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/you-should-write-blogs)
but only because I found
[what you wrote](https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/tour-de-babel#TOC-C-)
about C++ to be both funny and appropriate.

2020 note: I'm now moving to [Hugo](https://gohugo.io/)!  Hello,
2013-procrastinating me!  Yes, Hakyll was neat but now I'm a bit sick
of it and just really want some basic things to be easy for me again
(like a photo gallery) given that I hate web stuff like crazy.

(Did you know my [old Wordpress](https://hodapp.wordpress.com/) is
*still* up?  It's 13 years old at this point.)
