All in all to get a simple blog up and running with Jekyll has been pretty straight forward. Customization and using themes has been a little confusing.

Pros :+1:

  • Setting up GitHub Pages was really easy. Just create a repository with username.github.io and it works.
  • The default Minima theme is pretty good for a simple look.
  • Writing posts is very easy and can be done with markdown.

Cons :-1:

  • Many tutorials involve a fork first workflow which I don’t like. I am comfortable with the command line and prefer developing locally before publishing. Maybe a clone first workflow?

  • Changing themes has been kind of a mess because of the different layout requirements. I tried a few themes but ran into errors when compiling. Incremental changes were hard to implement because themes required specific directory structure.

  • Initially I found the gem-based themes confusing as many online tutorials had a different directory structure. To make local customizations I would need to run bundle show minima to see where the Minima configuration files are. Then make a copy in my local site repository and make the changes. The lesson I learned was read the docs!

For now I plan to stay with Minima and focus on content. I want to add some more incremental changes such as comments on posts, also maybe a contact, resume and archive page.

I found the most of my questions were addressed in the official documentation. Often re-reading helped.

I enjoyed this write up about setting up a Jekyll blog. At the time of writing this post Brian’s website is also using the Minima theme which was a great reference point.

I enjoyed this set of videos going into the specifics about using Jekyll.