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Overview

This site is now created solely with MultiMarkdown. The plain text source files, e.g. here, are processed with MultiMarkdown into XHTML files. The XHTML files use a few templates and Server Side Includes to create a consistent layout and to automatically link to other pages in various subdirectories. I use some cgi scripts to handle authentication via OpenID Everything is uploaded to my server via git.

Previously, I have used Oddmuse and subsequently Movable Type to generate this site. I finally realized that each of those programs was essentially just putting a wrapper around my MultiMarkdown content which was the core of each page. I describe a bit more how I transitioned from other software here.

MultiMarkdown

The content of this site is written using the MultiMarkdown syntax, and then converted to XHTML. I also use SmartyPants to simplify making the content “typographically correct.” A custom XSLT file modifies the plain XHTML output from MultiMarkdown to include a few templates and scripts to allow for proper page formatting (e.g. the sidebar, header, and footer).

Hosting

Hosted by NearlyFreeSpeech.NET. They offer a unique pricing plan based purely on the actual storage space and bandwidth used, with no monthly fees.

However, I also make use of Amazon’s S3 service for hosting larger files. The bandwidth and storage costs are much lower, but the performance is supposedly not quite good enough to act as your sole web server (though that is actually possible for static pages…) Basically, my web site (which has both static and dynamic pages) will be hosted with NFSN, while images and files for download will be hosted at S3.

This does mean that my bandwidth and storage is no longer free (or more precisely, paid for), but the added flexibility should be worth it. (Donations to keep things running are certainly welcome!)

Apache

NearlyFreeSpeech.NET uses Apache as their server software. I have modified my .htaccess file to send the proper Mime-type to each browser, since certain popular but crappy browsers still have trouble keeping up with last generation web standards (cough IE cough). With thanks to bitworking.

RewriteCond %{HTTP_ACCEPT} application/xhtml\+xml
RewriteCond %{HTTP_ACCEPT} !application/xhtml\+xml\s*;\s*q=0\.?0*(\s|,|$)
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} \.html$
RewriteRule .* - [T=application/xhtml+xml;charset=UTF-8]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_ACCEPT} application/xhtml\+xml
RewriteCond %{HTTP_ACCEPT} !application/xhtml\+xml\s*;\s*q=0\.?0*(\s|,|$)
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.
RewriteRule .* - [T=application/xhtml+xml;charset=UTF-8]

If you are unfortunate enough to have to use such a browser, recognize that this site will not look as it is supposed to….

Email

Email is provided by Google Apps. For more information on how to use Google’s email services, see Using Gmail and Postfix.

Typography

I’ve tried to apply some principles of well thought out typography to this site, using the following references:

• Five simple steps to better typography

• Web Typography Sucks

It really does make a difference!

CSS

The CSS for this site is broken into separate files in order to better differentiate the different components. One file applies the typography techniques mentioned above; one applies colors; one applies the decorations and branding; one manages the overall page layout; one applies code to base the appearance of tables on that produced by the booktabs package for LaTeX.

Of course, this is all moot if you are using IE to view this site. In that case, I take no responsibility for the way things look on your screen. Treat yourself: use a real browser….

Legal Info

The content of this web site, unless otherwise specified, is licensed under a Creative Commons License by Fletcher T. Penney.

Most of my software is released under the GNU General Public License. See the individual files for more information.