I am currently using Hugo as a static site generator for my blog. It's not bad but rather limited. Does anybody know about something that would be equally as lightweight but offer some more flexibility. I just don't know what is out there so anything you guys could come up with would be appreciated.
Jekyll is great with a bunch of narrow tailored plugins to add only functionality you need. You can self host or use GitHub Pages (they only allow approved list of plugins).
The only limiting factor is really that if I am, say, in a public place that bans SSH access or SFTP access. I am starting to see more of this as deep packet inspection becomes available to the masses now. I could be composing my blog post on my laptop but be unable to otherwise publish it if I am on such a network that combines deep packet inspection with locking down ports.
You could also have your back end pull from a git repo every minute. A cron job could check a GitLab repo for changes and update the site if any changes are found.
I had one issue with it, re how it generated links, that didn’t match how I needed it to in order to migrate my site, which was a dealbreaker for me. But other than that, it was solid.
I despise jekyll, purely from the standpoint of the state of their documentation.
There was another, that was extremely lightweight and configurable, at the cost of requiring much configuration - I think it was called “metal” - if I can find it I’ll report back
Edit: Hexo and Metalsmith. Hexo scratches my javascript itch; metalsmith is extremely versatile - it’s more of an erector set than a finished thing.
In my experience this is one of those things where you'll never find something that's perfect, and have to settle for something.
I've been using metalsmith for years. The plugin ecosystem is a bit of a mess these days I think. IDK what else is available so can't make a recommendation.