About

My compiled website project is a document management engine that builds a website.

It's core philosophy is to have less "moving parts" and a shorter "chain of trust" by relying on as few intermediate steps and tools as possible. Also see my compiled website reasoning.

• Like a wiki, only better
  • Automated linking.
  • A trivial markup language. No learning curve.
  • For the full feature list, see the compiled website demo.
• Intelligent features
  • An automated table of contents with links to each section.
  • A sitemap is automatically-generated.
• Unrestricted content
  • Full HTML, JavaScript and CSS are available. There is no special process, simply add your code right alongside your plain text.
• A simple but smart design
  • A center column with the header at the top. Left/right columns waste space.
    • But if you want to change the style, you can hack the header_and_footer.rb file yourself.
  • The center column automatically expands and contracts to fit each viewer's screen. There's a maximum width so very wide screens won't have long unreadable text.
  • Easily-selected styles which are remembered as the user surfs.
• No database or file format
  • Plain text files.
• No server-scripting or hosting requirements
  • Plain .html files, the fastest and most secure form of website possible.
  • No local web server or special setup needed (no LAMPP/etc).
• Locally-edited, remotely-mirrored
  • A local copy is kept on your computer, and is accessed as fast as any other document. No loading screens or waiting to edit.
  • No net connection needed for surfing or editing. Point your browser at your local copy.
• Few tools/dependencies, all free and open source
  • The Ruby 1.9 core and standard libraries.
  • HTML Tidy is optional, but recommended.
  • A website-synchroniser. I use LFTP.
    • On Windows you can try one of [1] or [2]. I haven't tested these.
  • A web browser. I use Firefox.
  • A text editor. I use geany.
• Standards-compliant and SEO-friendly
  • The default is pretty good, but you can optionally use HTML Tidy to guarantee your preferred compliance strictness.
• Hackable and customizable
  • If it doesn't do what you want, contact me to consider your suggestion or just hack it in yourself! My programming style has a straightforward layout and design. An intermediate programmer can quickly and easily make simple changes.
  • Ruby is an extremely easy language to learn, even for a complete novice! Check out Hackity Hack! or Try Ruby!. Complete books and tutorials are available online for free.

Getting

https://github.com/spiralofhope/compiled-website/archives/master

Installing

(coming soon)

TODO: Notes within the project itself.

Operating

(coming soon)

TODO: Notes within the project itself.

Usage

(coming soon)

In the mean time, see compiled website usage. (to be updated)

TODO: Notes within the project itself.

Technologies and Dependencies

TODO: Notes within the project itself.

Alternatives and Comparisons

There are a number of tools which I've bumped into. Some of these I've had extensive experience with, and others I've just toyed with. Maybe someone else out there would appreciate my research and can use this info.

Wouldn't you know that even though I did a lot of research and experimentation to try (and fail) to satisfy my needs with some other tools, that after I started working on this and had a decent version working.. only THEN did I start finding other really cool projects. Oh well!

To help you find something that's suited to you, go and check out the tools listed below. Contact me if you find a tool or tools not listed here, especially if you have a special preference for it.