So I recently grew annoyed so much by the problems I have with Jekyll and the bloated repository of my academic website melashri.net. I thought about replacing the website theme but couldn't find anything suitable and moving to hugo like this blog was an option but I have grown tired of hugo too.

I also think about moving this blog to another SSG which I am currently looking for something easy and minimal. I have small need for customization for the academic website as I wouldn't be updating it that much. I also don't want breaking changes when building between different versions like hugo usually do. I also don't like ruby and setting it up on my new WSL proved to be stupid task filled of looking for old versions of different plugins and packages. I actually hate ruby as a language.

I found a small single binary SSG called SSG that I found via an HN comment. I then randomly searched for academic website theme for Zola and got what I want. A decent theme that is minimal and can be adjusted. I spend couple of hours tinkering with it and moving some of my content and adjusting the theme to my needs.

So Zola basically have 3 commands that is probably all you need.

To build the site, run:

zola build

To serve the site locally, run:

zola serve

To check the site for broken links and build without writing to the disk, run:

zola check

Now I still have to fill my projects page and update it with the full list of my projects but I think what I have now is decent enough. I am writing this on board a train going to Zurich to attend a conference so I would be busy for a couple of days. Maybe after that I will revisit projects page and fill it with additional information added here or there to the other pages. But I think this is much better version and much closer to what I currently would like.

So unless something substantial happens, This will be my academic website.