Mismiy, yet another simple static-site generator

Mismiy is a static-site generator: it takes a directory full of posts and pages in Markdown, formats them as HTML, then creates pages using Mustache templates. Posts and pages are pretty much the same, except that the index page has a reverse-chronological list of posts. It also generates an Atom feed, so readers can subscribe to your blog in their choice of feed reader (RSS reader).

A ‘static’ site means that all the pages people can view are already rendered in advance, rather than on-demand using information from some database backend. This means the web server can be exceptionally simple, which is good for security, and cheap to host. The trade-off is they treat all visitors equally: they’re good for a public blog, less so for premium content or secret notes.

The word ‘simple’ is a bit slippery, but the intention is get a lot of utility out of a minimum of code, and to saddle the site editor with the minimum of boilerplate. Part of keeping it simple is leaving out as many features as possible, by delaying implementing things until we have convinced ourselves we can’t really manage without them.

Mismiy is pronounced /ˈmɪsmɪj/ ‘Miss me?’