History and the CMS

I've had 9 versions of my website. In roughly chronological order:

• A plain HTML site (960 Grid System)
• A simple Flash template / XML site
• An iwebkit html site
• A plain HTML 5 Boilerplate site
• A Habari Project Site
• A Silverstripe + 960 gs site
• A Wordpress + Foundation 2 site
• A Pagekit + Bootstrap site
• An October CMS + Bootstrap Site

I have deemed this incarnation as stable. I settled on the Ghost Blogging platform and intend to keep it. Ghost is nice, friendly and I think I can actually understand some of its inner workings even though I've only used it in this Project.

The CSS Framework

There's been a second wave of responsive CSS frameworks thanks to Google's Material Design. I tested quite a few of the popular ones and found them lacking in some aspects.

I was about to go with Foundation but I decided on Bootstrap to keep my skill tree balanced.

The Hosting platform

I originally built this new site version on my own Vultr.com VPS. A simple ubuntu LAMP server with a Nodesource version of node.js. Not too modern or flashy, but a reliable combination of technology with a distinct flavor.

Later on, I was going to try my skills with some of the new generation Cloud SaaS platforms (Azure or OpenShift) and I found OpenShift very friendly for developers with Unix/Linux backgrounds, so I landed it here.

The Tools of the Trade

The choice of tools usually reflects on the type of Projects and personal taste of the Developer. A toolbox lets you know more about a worker than the worker itself.

I went with a traditional GNU/Linux developer toolchain, Spacemacs, zsh, every command tool required, nvm and the Gimp + trimage for image editing and optimization.

Building and launching

Building the site was limited to short bursts of activity between work, chores and personal goals. It took me longer than I wanted but shorter than I dreaded.

The entire nature of this site is modular, and every piece gets added, tweaked or removed as I see fit. There is a very flexible "Master Plan" of what I want in my website.

I also took the chance to trim all the branches from my git history (I was branching every commit and then merging again, hurr hurr).