Jan 13, 2024
Web
Changing Up My Website
I had a bunch of problems with my old website, and I thought it's time for something new, something simpler.
Getting Started
I recently did a project called Aplós, and you can check out the blog about it here.
TL;DR: Made it with VitePress, and it was a breeze to use. Got me thinking, why not redo my website with a focus on making it easy to read? As I didn't really pay attention to that when I built the old one about 2 years ago.
You might wonder, why not just tweak the old one (Gabs Website 3.0)? Well, it's not that good of an idea. Plus, it's a pain to add new stuff, being a Vue Single Page thingy, and even worse, Vue.js CDN, which I never understood how to make use of. Tried fixing just the engine, but no luck.
It took me too long to sort out the mess and figure out what the website was even telling its visitors. So, I figured, why not start fresh with a new website that's:
- Easy to read
- Simple and easy on the eyes
- Just performs better overall
Sure, it's not the most original idea, but I'm all about readability > originality.
Aplós Making Life Easier
Surprisingly (or not), Aplós made things a breeze. Most of the time spend was on making the content, not
the looks. The cool thing was, I only had to set up the config.mts the way I liked it and then just create the pages I needed using something as simple as Markdown (index.md, projects.md, & findme.md). When thinking about how to show my projects, I thought, why not reuse the style I used for the Posts List on the blog? Seemed easy, and got it working, and boom.
A Fresh Structure
The new website gave me freedom to show off more stuff (no more of the old website's <p> & <span> limits). Also, I ditched the "everything in one file" deal. Now, each page has its own spot. Much better, right?
I also made a new Blog using Aplós, so I moved the blog into the main repository. Took me 5 minutes to put it in the /blog/ folder. Here's the new structure:
| Component | Location |
|---|---|
| About Me | pages, index.md |
| Projects | pages, projects.md |
| Find Me | pages, findme.md |
| Blog | pages, /blog/ |
Way better than the old:
| Component | Location |
|---|---|
| About Me | pages, index.html |
| Projects | pages, index.html |
| Find Me | pages, index.html |
| Blog | blog |
pages= main repositoryblog= old blog repository
The blog folder keeps it straightforward:
/blog/index.mdis the main page, and/blogs/posts/is where I have all the posts.Sadly I am still figuring out how to auto-list posts on the posts list page. For now, I've made up a simple way to show the latest posts using the
formatter.
Design
Check it out, the website has a new look. Tried to keep the old colors, but it's just a simple Aplós design, inspired by Duckquill. Shoutout to Jamie/Monster for helping with design suggestions.
Wrapping Up
In a nutshell, even though I liked the old website, too many issues led me to something better. Also, it's interesting to see how my taste in website looks changed over the past 2 years... And it's a good thing!
~by Gabs