Trying Astro

Jekyll Was Fine

I’ve had my blog on Jekyll for a very long time, but I’ve never been all that comfortable with it! Some common bumps I always hit:

• Liquid is awkward, and I never got the hang of it
• I never found a great way of embedding little javascript component widgets (like svelte)
• Whenever I get a new computer I wrestle with ruby and bundler versions

Astro Is Lovely

I’ve been playing around with other blog/static-site frameworks, and I’ve decided to try Astro!

There is a lot I like about it:

• It’s in javascript, which is what I’ve been using mostly lately (I haven’t done ruby full-time in 5+ years)
• I can use my favorite javascript frameworks, and even mix them in the same project - Astro supports everything I’d use! Svelte, React, Vue, etc.
• I can put html and javascript components in my markdown via MDX — without needing to use the react part of MDX!
  • (to be fair, I do sometimes use those patterns anyway, but I choose to)
• There are a ton of plugins already - there’s something for just about anything I need!