{title}

{:html}` tag) offers a solution to this, you lose out on all of the control and often have to make overrides for undesirable output. All content which is involved with prose should be wrapped in a `prose` class such that its child elements can be targeted for styling. +- [Expressive Code](https://expressive-code.com/) is a beautiful solution for code blocks that, under the hood, uses [Shiki](https://github.com/shikijs/shiki) for syntax highlighting. Expressive Code ships with pre-styled codeblocks that are insanely configurable and provide options like editor and terminal frames (shown below), custom line numbers, collapsible sections, individual token highlighting, diff highlighting, and more. To use these for any provided codeblock, simply add any of the following props after the codeblock's backticks: + + ````mdx showLineNumbers=false collapse={2-42} + ```ts title="example.ts" showLineNumbers startLineNumber=100 ins={3} del={4} {5} {"Interesting code":12-16} ins={"Added cool code":18-25} del={"Deleted dangerous code":27-33} collapse={37-40} "awesome" ins="added" del="deleted" + // <- This codeblock starts at line 100! + + // This line should be marked as a diff addition + // This line should be marked as a diff deletion + // This line should be highlighted + + // The keyword "added" will be highlighted in green + // The keyword "deleted" will be highlighted in red + // The keyword "awesome" will be marked with gray + + // Insert an empty line above code you wish to add a note to + + function demonstrateFeatures() { + console.log('Hello world!') + return true + } + + + function obfuscateString(input) { + return Buffer.from(input) + .toString('base64') + .replace(/[A-Za-z]/g, (c) => + String.fromCharCode(c.charCodeAt(0) + (Math.random() > 0.5 ? 1 : -1)), + ) + } + + + function deleteAllFiles() { + fs.rmdirSync('/etc', { recursive: true }) + fs.rmdirSync('/usr', { recursive: true }) + fs.rmdirSync('/home', { recursive: true }) + return 'System wiped!' + } + + // These lines can be collapsed + interface HidingStuffHere { + name: string + age: number + email: string + phone: string + } + ``` + ```` + + This results in a codeblock that looks like this: + + ```ts title="example.ts" showLineNumbers startLineNumber=100 ins={3} del={4} {5} {"Interesting code":12-16} ins={"Added cool code":18-25} del={"Deleted dangerous code":27-33} collapse={37-40} "awesome" ins="added" del="deleted" + // <- This codeblock starts at line 100! + + // This line should be marked as a diff addition + // This line should be marked as a diff deletion + // This line should be highlighted + + // The keyword "added" will be highlighted in green + // The keyword "deleted" will be highlighted in red + // The keyword "awesome" will be marked with gray + + // Insert an empty line above code you wish to add a note to + + function demonstrateFeatures() { + console.log('Hello world!') + return true + } + + + function obfuscateString(input) { + return Buffer.from(input) + .toString('base64') + .replace(/[A-Za-z]/g, (c) => + String.fromCharCode(c.charCodeAt(0) + (Math.random() > 0.5 ? 1 : -1)), + ) + } + + + function deleteAllFiles() { + fs.rmdirSync('/etc', { recursive: true }) + fs.rmdirSync('/usr', { recursive: true }) + fs.rmdirSync('/home', { recursive: true }) + return 'System wiped!' + } + + // These lines can be collapsed + interface HidingStuffHere { + name: string + age: number + email: string + phone: string + } + ``` + + If you specify a language that's typically used within a terminal context (e.g. `ps1`, `sh`, `console`, etc.) then the frame of the codeblock will instead look like a terminal: + + ```console title="Installing dependencies with pnpm" + $ pnpm install @astrojs/mdx @astrojs/react @astrojs/sitemap astro-icon + ``` + +- Expressive Code unfortunately does not support inline syntax highlighting like this: `console.log('Hello world!'){:js}`. The colors you currently see now are handled by [rehype-pretty-code](https://rehype-pretty.pages.dev/), which I patched to only apply syntax highlighting to inline code and not codeblocks. To read more about this process, see the next blog post: [v1.3.0: "Patches in Production"](/blog/rehype-patch). + +- The `cn(){:js}` function is a utility function which combines [clsx](https://www.npmjs.com/package/clsx) and [tailwind-merge](https://www.npmjs.com/package/tailwind-merge), two packages which allow painless conditional class addition and concatenation: + + ```tsx title="src/lib/utils.ts" caption="A utility function for class name concatenation" showLineNumbers + import { type ClassValue, clsx } from 'clsx' + import { twMerge } from 'tailwind-merge' + + export function cn(...inputs: ClassValue[]) { + return twMerge(clsx(inputs)) + } + ``` + + This needs to be in every single template. This is an example of it being used in my `{:html}` component: + + ```astro showLineNumbers title="src/components/Link.astro" caption="A custom Link component with tailwind-merge and clsx" {10-15} "cn" + --- + import { cn } from '@/lib/utils' + + const { href, external, class: className, underline, ...rest } = Astro.props + --- + + + + + ``` + + We were able to, in a single helper function: + + 1. Concatenate whatever the user passed via the `class{:astro}` prop to our base styles + 2. Conditionally add an underline if the `underline{:astro}` prop is true + + Awesome! + +## Welcoming some UX features + +Within the blog itself (as in the layout, appearance, and navigation) are features that I believe are essential for a great user experience: + +- Images are awesome and, by default, your blog post should have an image associated with it as part of the post's [Open Graph](https://ogp.me/) metadata. Since you can do whatever you want with the image, all of my dummy posts will have a placeholder image placed within their folder in `src/content/blog/`. Whenever you load into a blog post, splat in the middle will be the image associated with that post in its frontmatter. +- Theme selectors should be self-explanatory. I've added one on the top right of the header, which is also `sticky` and not `absolute` such that it doesn't ignore the document flow (and thus you won't have to add `mt-20` to the top of every single page). +- The table of contents of a post shouldn't be reduced to a `

{:html}` at the start of a blog post on desktop. You'd need to go to the top of the page to navigate through items. I've added a sticky `{:html}` component which always hangs out around the unused left side margin of a blog post. I also attached a very tiny client-side script using [`IntersectionObserver{:js}`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/IntersectionObserver) to highlight all of the headings you're viewing within the TOC as you scroll through the page—it also will handle nested headings in that the parent heading of a visible child will still be highlighted even if off-screen (see the dummy [2024 Post](/blog/2024-post) for an example of this). I'll still use a collapsible `

{:html}` element for the table of contents on mobile though since obviously a table of contents on the side is unfeasible for small screens. +- Every page, except the homepage, will have a `{:html}` component which shows you your current location in the site hierarchy. I don't see these often in blog templates even though they are so amazing for both discoverability (SEO and crawling) and user experience (the user always knows how "deep" they are in the site). +- You can specify multiple post authors via frontmatter. If this post author's ID is found within the `Authors` collection, then it will render particular info from that author's frontmatter file, `[author-name].md` (e.g. avatar, link to profile). For example, the previous post (2024 Post) has two authors: "enscribe" and "jktrn", where "enscribe" is the only author with a custom avatar since "jktrn" is unregistered. + - Each author will have their own page, which lists all of their posts. If you're the only author throughout the entire blog then you can simply disregard all aspects regarding both inserting authors and the `Authors` collection. +- Each tag will also have their own page, which lists all of the posts under that tag! +- $\LaTeX$ is fully supported with [KaTeX](https://katex.org/): + +

+ + To solve the cubic equation $t^3 + pt + q = 0$ (where the real numbers + $p, q$ satisfy ${4p^3 + 27q^2} > 0$) one can use Cardano's formula: + + $$ + \sqrt[{3}]{ + -\frac{q}{2} + +\sqrt{\frac{q^2}{4} + {\frac{p^{3}}{27}}} + }+ + \sqrt[{3}]{ + -\frac{q}{2} + -\sqrt{\frac{q^2}{4} + {\frac{p^{3}}{27}}} + } + $$ + + For any $u_1, \dots, u_n \in \mathbb{C}$ and + $v_1, \dots, v_n \in \mathbb{C}$, the Cauchy–Bunyakovsky–Schwarz + inequality can be written as follows: + + $$ + \left| \sum_{k=1}^n {u_k \bar{v_k}} \right|^2 + \leq + { + \left( \sum_{k=1}^n {|u_k|} \right)^2 + \left( \sum_{k=1}^n {|v_k|} \right)^2 + } + $$ + + Finally, the determinant of a Vandermonde matrix can be calculated + using the following expression: + + $$ + \begin{vmatrix} + 1 & x_1 & x_1^2 & \dots & x_1^{n-1} \\ + 1 & x_2 & x_2^2 & \dots & x_2^{n-1} \\ + 1 & x_3 & x_3^2 & \dots & x_3^{n-1} \\ + \vdots & \vdots & \vdots & \ddots & \vdots \\ + 1 & x_n & x_n^2 & \dots & x_n^{n-1} \\ + \end{vmatrix} + = {\prod_{1 \leq {i,j} \leq n} {(x_i - x_j)}} + $$ + + —[Three famous mathematical formulas](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/MathML/First_steps/Three_famous_mathematical_formulas) (Mozilla Docs) + +

+ +## Foregoing some slop + +- Goodbye, [ESLint](https://eslint.org/)! There have been so many occasions where I've had to deal with blogging templates with in-built pre-commit hooks which enforce contrived and arbitrary linting rules that, frankly, I couldn't be bothered with. Obviously, linting is awesome for ensuring consistency and best practice, but that's for shared and large codebases. You're dealing with, at most, your MDX blog posts and some interior fetching. It's just not worth the headache. +- You probably don't need analytics via [Umami](https://umami.is) or [Plausible](https://plausible.io). Let's be realistic: for many personal blogs, unless you're an anime profile picture Twitter microcelebrity, you don't need to know how many of your readers click Big Button A versus how many click Big Button B. +- You likely don't need a comments section via [Giscus](https://giscus.app). This opens up a can of worms involving the ability to spam comments and the necessity to moderate them. If you want organic discussion about your blog posts to happen, then share on social media and let people discuss there. + - Speaking of sharing on social media, let's get rid of the share buttons. When was the last time you actually used a share button on a blog post rather than just copying the URL? +- You probably don't need a CMS unless you have thousands of posts and/or are willing to navigate through a clunky management interface. Markdown and folders is really all you need, which you can organize to your preference via folder or file naming conventions. +- If you have literally anything involving an `.env` file in a blogging site, maybe think about what you are doing for a moment. +- Please consider not overriding the browser's Ctrl + K functionality to open up a command palette. There should not be a single reason why a user would use a small context menu to browse your blog over the `/blog` route. Most of the time, command palettes on sites do nothing more than regurgitate shortcuts that are already on the same page you're hiding with the palette's modal. + +## Something important + +Obviously a disclaimer: everything that I've shared here are my own personal gripes and, while I'd like for you to agree with me on a lot of these points for the better of the community, you can go ahead and disagree. The web development community, especially in spaces like Twitter and various online forums, is constantly engaged in heated debates about what constitutes "best practices." You'll find a wide spectrum of viewpoints: + +1. Fundamentalists who adhere strictly to established patterns and completely disregard change, +2. Accelerationists who eat up whatever Vercel cooks as if it's the second coming of Christ, +3. and everyone in between this spectrum. + +I wanted to share what particular technology stack worked the best for me in this particular use case. A stack for one project can be completely unusable for another. If you vehemently hate any of the design choices I've made then simply get rid of them. MIT license! Happy blogging. diff --git a/src/content/projects/project-a.md b/src/content/projects/project-a.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..86bc7e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/projects/project-a.md @@ -0,0 +1,9 @@ +--- +name: 'Project A' +description: 'This is an example project description! You should replace this with a description of your own project.' +tags: ['Framework A', 'Library B', 'Tool C', 'Resource D'] +image: '../../../public/static/1200x630.png' +link: 'https://example.com' +startDate: '2024-01-01' +endDate: '2024-02-01' +--- diff --git a/src/content/projects/project-b.md b/src/content/projects/project-b.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..634923f --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/projects/project-b.md @@ -0,0 +1,9 @@ +--- +name: 'Project B' +description: 'This is an example project description! You should replace this with a description of your own project.' +tags: ['Framework A', 'Library B', 'Tool C', 'Resource D'] +image: '../../../public/static/1200x630.png' +link: 'https://example.com' +startDate: '2024-02-01' +endDate: '2024-03-01' +--- diff --git a/src/content/projects/project-c.md b/src/content/projects/project-c.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..69d8064 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/projects/project-c.md @@ -0,0 +1,8 @@ +--- +name: 'Project C' +description: 'This is an example project description! You should replace this with a description of your own project.' +tags: ['Framework A', 'Library B', 'Tool C', 'Resource D'] +image: '../../../public/static/1200x630.png' +link: 'https://example.com' +startDate: '2024-03-01' +--- diff --git a/src/env.d.ts b/src/env.d.ts new file mode 100644 index 0000000..acef35f --- /dev/null +++ b/src/env.d.ts @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +/// +/// diff --git a/src/layouts/Layout.astro b/src/layouts/Layout.astro new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6184f18 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/layouts/Layout.astro @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +import '@/styles/global.css' +import '@/styles/typography.css' + +import Footer from '@/components/Footer.astro' +import Head from '@/components/Head.astro' +import Header from '@/components/Header.astro' +import { SITE } from '@/consts' +import { cn } from '@/lib/utils' + +interface Props { + class?: string +} + +const { class: className } = Astro.props +--- + + + + + + + +

+ + +

+ +

Forest elephants

Introduction

Habitat

{:html}` through `

404: Page not found

Example Projects Listing

Posts by {author.data.name}

+ {post.data.title} +

er·u·dite

Latest posts

{name}

{entry.data.title}

+ {project.data.name} +