Metalsmith
Dev tools
static site generator
SHOW HN2014
How HN took it
14 positive, 6 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 5 critical, out of 26 comments about the project. Thread score +0.38.
Idea: 6 for, 1 againstDesign: 3 for, 2 againstExecution: 2 for, 1 againstPerformance: 1 for, 0 againstDocs: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Simple, composable design built around plugins
From 3 comments
It appears to be indeed both extremely simple, and extremely composable. How well does it handle large collections of files?
mercurial on HNNot just a nice tool, but a great implementation. Simple, lean code, no promises or anything fancy.
ricardobeat on HNThis looks very cool. I like the focus on plugins, it would be pretty awesome to have a flexible static site generator with an active plugin ecosystem.
sgdesign on HN
Clean, readable source code
From 2 comments
Not just a nice tool, but a great implementation. Simple, lean code, no promises or anything fancy.
ricardobeat on HNThe problem with Gulp is just that it just adds too much extra cruft into the mix that isn't really necessary, mostly around running tasks from the CLI. Our general thought for…
ianstormtaylor on HN
Objections
Unclear documentation for installation and the JavaScript API
From 2 comments
How do I get this working on Windows? I've installed it with npm install metalsmith. Now what?
Kiro on HNYou’re right, the “Install It” section should make that clearer. Anyway, there is an explanation of basic usage if you follow the link to “CLI”…
roryokane on HN
Unclear advantage over existing static site generators
From 1 comment
I fail to see the big advantage of this over its competitors.
caiob on HN
Front-matter parsing is hard-coded to YAML rather than a plugin
From 1 comment
One problem I see. On the one hand you say: > All of the logic in Metalsmith is handled by plugins. But on the other hand, you say this: > Each plugin is invoked with the…
Touche on HN
Requests
Support JSON front-matter
From 2 comments
One problem I see. On the one hand you say: > All of the logic in Metalsmith is handled by plugins. But on the other hand, you say this: > Each plugin is invoked with the…
Touche on HNA JSON file is a YAML file, so what's the problem?
icebraining on HN
Side-by-side feature comparison of static site generators
From 1 comment
With sooooo many static site generators (all very well done too), would be awesome to have a side-by-side by-feature comparison table.
rayshan on HN
Questions
How it performs with large numbers of files
From 1 comment
It appears to be indeed both extremely simple, and extremely composable. How well does it handle large collections of files?
mercurial on HN
How to use it on Windows
From 1 comment
How do I get this working on Windows? I've installed it with npm install metalsmith. Now what?
Kiro on HN
Alternatives named
Jekyll
From 2 comments
One thing I don't like about jekyll (unless I'm missing something), is that on site generation, the last modified time stamp of the files gets updated too even if the file…
cristianpascu on HNCouldn't choose between Jekyll and Middleman, but now I think I'm going with Metalsmith. No ruby, understandable plugin structure… I'm sold!
rainburg on HN
Gulp
From 2 comments
Could be compared to assemble.io and stylistically reminds me of Gulp.
dangoor on HNGulp was the first thing I though of when looking through the examples. Edit: In fact, could this whole thing just be a gulp plugin?
justarandomanon on HN
DocPad
From 1 comment
Thanks. Looking forward to trying it out this weekend. My current generator, which I'm generally happy with, is DocPad. http://docpad.org
8ig8 on HN
Middleman
From 1 comment
Couldn't choose between Jekyll and Middleman, but now I think I'm going with Metalsmith. No ruby, understandable plugin structure… I'm sold!
rainburg on HN
Harp
From 1 comment
This is really intriguing. I also recommend HarpJS (https://www.harp.io/) as well, which has some impressive pre-compile features.
shortformblog on HN