Hitchens for Micro.blog pimoore.ca
@pimoore In your write up about installation you refer to Tufte a couple of times. // @toddgrotenhuis
@pimoore Amazing! Great work! I liked this theme since the first I saw Pat posting about it. I'm temped to give it a try... 🤣
@pimoore Dammit! I had just gotten used to my theme and now you're tempting me with this one. Great job!
@amit I gave kudos to Pat Dryburgh when he first designed and presented Hitchens. When was that, 1-2 yrs ago or more? I wonder whether he's still around to now see people like it. I remember Manton liked it back then too, but for some reason it couldn't be used on microblog. So now it can be? Maybe it should be called Dryburgh, not Hitchens.
@gregmoore Thanks Greg, I’ve really enjoyed porting the two so far! I’d love to be able to create my own based on one of the starter themes at some point. Hitchens is also making me question the heavy use of shortcodes, as while they’re convenient for automating some coding, they also act as a bit of “lock-in”, as you’re now forced to carry them over to any future theme you switch to, otherwise your build will break.
Thank you to everyone too numerous to mention for your comments about Hitchens, which are even more numerous! 🙏 ❤️
@pimoore You’re not kidding about the short code issue. At work, we created our own shortcodes on a project and found we’d created our own lock-in that we had to get out of. 🤣
@gregmoore I now find myself brainstorming how to get the functionality of shortcodes but without actually using them. The obvious answer would be Shortcuts, but not everybody is in the Apple ecosystem to take advantage. I do have an idea that might work, so I’ll likely be back in my laboratory soon…
@timapple I like them in practice, but in terms of posts displaying with them in the timeline they are visible if it’s under 280 characters. They also create problems with the URL name if the post starts with a shortcode. I’m now on a mission to find a coding way of achieving a happy medium between the two.
@jlrevilla Can you open an issue on the GitHub repo and attach a screenshot of what you’re seeing? I can take a look at it as well when I have a chance.
@kaa Thanks, Khaled! I’m a sucker for reading good documentation myself, so I wouldn’t be happy if I didn’t provide it in return. I’ve seen my share of guides that sadly were anything but.
@gregmoore From my limited reading I believe Jekyll has a different approach to automation, but then you have to deal with the slowness of Jekyll in comparison when building the site. Not ideal in the slightest, in addition to all the dependencies it pulls.
Sometimes I wish there was a LotR approach to SSGs: take the best parts of each and combine them with a single binary app and good templating option (Hugo’s is a bit cumbersome). One SSG to rule them all, done.
@hjertnes So do I, it would be a hard choice to switch if I ever adopt it—or parts of it— on my site.
@pimoore my stream is full of hoopla about Hitchens … and I thought .. no worries … I already have the most excellent Tufte. And then I saw the screen shots.
Damn you Pete Moore … damn you … you have done it again.
It is LOVELY!
@pimoore That’s great! Loving the Tufte, but I’ll have to see what people do with Hitchens. I was a late adopter of the Tufte, but it does everything I want from a theme.
@timapple yep, this is one reason I prefer using plain markdown and SSGs that doesn't require my to use "custom" markdown
@odd I have no doubt parts of it might be creeping into Tufte on my site at least. I shall call it… MEGA-Tufte. 😂
(Only half joking.)
@JohnPhilpin I’m not even sure what a short code is. I don’t think I have used any. Then I’m not the world’s most advanced user either.
@pimoore Ok. I’m pretty sure he is of Norwegian descent on his father’s side though, unless the name originally is Danish.
@pimoore I suspected so. The place he’s from isn’t that far from where Olaf Tufte, the multiple Olympic Gold winner is from.
@odd Apparently my obsession with Norway continues then. 😂 I also learned that the correct pronunciation of his last name is actually TUFF-tee, so I learned even more new things today.
@Pilchuck That was a starting point for many of the people going west, wasn’t it? If I remember correctly, some of my relatives went on to Minnesota from there.
@pimoore 😂 Olaf pronounce his last name “TUFF-teh”. He’s a really tuff guy. Tuff, but nice, (from what I’ve seen on TV, don’t know him personally).
@pimoore I would not have used double ff or ee to describe the pronunciation of that name. Unless you want to do the most American version possible 🤠
@Pilchuck This was maybe a common occurrence, to have long immigration, because it must have been steep rent prices with all the immigrants coming in at that time?
On my mothers side, my grandfather was born in the late 1800s too, and I think it’s odd to think about only two generations up, and we’re back when there were practically no cars or electric appliances around.
@Ron Been a really rough year but I just saw this now. I love that people are expanding on it and making it accessible to more people! I just wish I’d been sent an email about it just so I had something to make me smile while things haven’t been so… smile inducing.
@pat Hi Pat, Yes it would have been good manners for folks to thank you from the start! I don't know what made it so popular recently. There are a lot of experimenters here who are constantly making changes on their blogs. I suppose their focus is on how their blogs are looking.
My condolences to you for the loss of your father. These have been very rough times for so many, in so many ways. My best wishes to you & hope this is a sign that times have now changed for the better for you.
🙏
@pat How on Earth did I miss you here on Micro.blog to not reach out sooner‽ Hitchens is a beautiful theme, and I’m honoured to carry on the legacy of your beautiful work on this, and bring it to Micro.blog with some extra twists. It will no doubt be coming to my blog in either full, or at least part as a hybrid with my current theme.
So very sorry about the loss of your father, my heart goes out to you and your family. After losing mine as well near the end of last year, I feel every bit of the sadness and grief you’ve experienced. These are the times that drawing strength from the happy memories and time we got to spend with our fathers, slowly but surely will heal the wounds.
// @ron
@pimoore You've done an outstanding job with it. I tried at one point to figure out a migration path from Jekyll to Hugo, but I didn't have the time at the time to see it through.
I'm sorry about your dad, too. I'm grateful that I was able to spend almost the entire last year caring for and spending time with Dad. I expect the grieving process to take years; heck, my dad's death brought up feelings about my mom's death 7 years prior. I'm thankfully in a stable place with family nearby which really helps.
@pat I feel the same, it will be some time before I fully heal from the loss. My wife has been truly loving and supportive right from the moment I receive the phone call, and I’m planning on making the most of my life that he would be proud of. Don’t be afraid to reach out if you ever need to talk about it, or share some laughs over happy memories.
@pimoore I had thought installation would be much trickier than it appears to be from reading your post... and that I'd need Hugo or something. I might give it a shot. Thanks again =]
@pimoore I'm a bit late and probably dense, but how do I change colors? Do I need to clone the plugin and change it there? Or is there a better way?
@jemostrom That’s changing now in the plug-in architecture, whereby theme plugins are no longer editable. You can pick a template to edit (in this case the CSS file) and a copy will be created that you can modify. This is good because your changes won’t be overridden with a plug-in update.
To change the colours for Hitchens that can be done using the variables, with the exception of the quill dividers. For example, if you want to change the yellow background to something else, you’d change the —body-bg hex value to the colour you want. For more information about the variables see this section of the README, and let me know if you have more questions.
To read more about the plug-in changes see this article in the help forum.
// @manton
