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Astro 1.0 – a web framework for building fast, content-focused websites

astro.build

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Re: Astro 1.0 – a web framework for building fast, content-focused websites

#121
post #47

It always annoys me when I read something like: To try Astro on your local machine, run npm create astro@latest in any terminal. because it doesn't make it clear to me what to do before this command will actually do anything. No, running this command will not work in any terminal.

> in any terminal

I agree; the "in any terminal" part is paternalistically redundant - any software developer who recognizes the npm command will know what to do with it.

Re: Astro 1.0 – a web framework for building fast, content-focused websites

#122
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting their blog post doesn't mention some of the benefits. Neither does the doc page you linked—at least it doesn't do it succinctly. Essentially Astro lets you build sites using a JS framework like React or Vue without requiring that framework to be loaded on the frontend. By default, components are just HTML content. Super nice for building very fast static sites using a technology you may already be fl…

Not getting it tbh. Why would you go nuclear and develop a React or Vue app and then not actually use it on the browser side? For content-oriented websites there are much simpler workflows based on SGML and other classic markup processing and content management practices. I mean the point of "content-oriented" and web sites in general really is that an expert in the field, rather than a web developer, can achieve use…

Developer experience writing React is much nicer than using other markup languages. That's why I use it at least, the fact that it spits out a fully JS-free website at the end is the icing on the top.

Re: Astro 1.0 – a web framework for building fast, content-focused websites

#123
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting their blog post doesn't mention some of the benefits. Neither does the doc page you linked—at least it doesn't do it succinctly. Essentially Astro lets you build sites using a JS framework like React or Vue without requiring that framework to be loaded on the frontend. By default, components are just HTML content. Super nice for building very fast static sites using a technology you may already be fl…

Not getting it tbh. Why would you go nuclear and develop a React or Vue app and then not actually use it on the browser side? For content-oriented websites there are much simpler workflows based on SGML and other classic markup processing and content management practices. I mean the point of "content-oriented" and web sites in general really is that an expert in the field, rather than a web developer, can achieve use…

You get the speed of SSR but can sprinkle interactivity into the app using the same SPA style frameworks via isolated “islands”.

Re: Astro 1.0 – a web framework for building fast, content-focused websites

#124
post #114
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also out of the box: - Tailwind support - Optional choice of UI framework (React, SolidJS, Svelte etc...) - Partial hydration. Generates _actual HTML_ on the server-side rather than JS blobs (which is what some other frameworks call SSR). It really does work nicely. It's very fast, minimal config required.

As someone who started building web pages in the 90s, the "islands architecture" (generating HTML server-side) of Astro and others makes me laugh because it's literally what we used to do with XMLHttpRequest in IE 5/6 20+ years ago. We generated page partials (or used static ones) and pulled them in with "Ajax" (for the oldies out there) and then inserted them in the right place on the page using innerHTML. There's n…

And before Ajax you could use a hidden iframe and update the parent page with some JS.

Re: Astro 1.0 – a web framework for building fast, content-focused websites

#125

Is there a static site generator out there that doesn't require a ridiculous build process every time I do an update? Inevitably, when a new "hot" SSG comes on the scene, I try it, and then go back to compare it to the old "hot" SSG from 2 years ago. Yet, I can never get the old test site I set up running again without massive annoyances. This has happened multiple times. As far as I'm concerned, there's zero reason…

Use any SSG not written in javascript and you'll be fine. Hugo, Zola, Jekyll, etc. Though if I was starting from scratch I might avoid Jekyll just because of the Ruby dependency.

Honest q: what’s the problem with Ruby? Compile time? Gem management? I’m using Jekyll and sometimes wonder if I’m missing anything from the newer systems. My compile time is negligible, and once I figured out how to integrate Tailwind, I’ve had no issues.

Re: Astro 1.0 – a web framework for building fast, content-focused websites

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netlify recently changed their pricing structure, so if you are using Netlify CMS (or just Netlify Identity) with a private repo, every contributor to the repository (committer) will be charged as full pro seat. This can get really expensive if you have a few users working with the CMS (and thus committing content to the repository). We will move a few pages from Netlify now because of this change.

Also, found out the hard way that "Enterprise" pricing (i.e. call us and we'll charge you an opaque amount based on whatever we think you can afford pricing) starts at 7 users. Vercel is not much better at 10 users, and they hide it deep within their pricing table behind a tooltip so you're not likely to realize this until it's too late. Cloudflare Pages doesn't charge per user but limits concurrent builds which can…

Assuming that 7-10 users are FTE, the company is already spending more than $1M on salary and related costs. I imagine the annual Enterprise pricing for Vercel for that numbers of users would hover around 1/4 of an FTE's salary, which is reasonable considering the value provided.

Re: Astro 1.0 – a web framework for building fast, content-focused websites

#128
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, found out the hard way that "Enterprise" pricing (i.e. call us and we'll charge you an opaque amount based on whatever we think you can afford pricing) starts at 7 users. Vercel is not much better at 10 users, and they hide it deep within their pricing table behind a tooltip so you're not likely to realize this until it's too late. Cloudflare Pages doesn't charge per user but limits concurrent builds which can…

> I honestly can't find a good option in this space anymore... What happened? They took lots of VC money, got crazy valuations and picked up a few enterprise customers as the JamStack trend grew - and now have to try to generate a return.

> and now have to try to generate a return

Otherwise called running a business.

Re: Astro 1.0 – a web framework for building fast, content-focused websites

#129

Is there a static site generator out there that doesn't require a ridiculous build process every time I do an update? Inevitably, when a new "hot" SSG comes on the scene, I try it, and then go back to compare it to the old "hot" SSG from 2 years ago. Yet, I can never get the old test site I set up running again without massive annoyances. This has happened multiple times. As far as I'm concerned, there's zero reason…

I believe m4 comes preinstalled on some Linuxes.

Re: Astro 1.0 – a web framework for building fast, content-focused websites

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use any SSG not written in javascript and you'll be fine. Hugo, Zola, Jekyll, etc. Though if I was starting from scratch I might avoid Jekyll just because of the Ruby dependency.

Honest q: what’s the problem with Ruby? Compile time? Gem management? I’m using Jekyll and sometimes wonder if I’m missing anything from the newer systems. My compile time is negligible, and once I figured out how to integrate Tailwind, I’ve had no issues.

I’ve used Sphinx, mkdocs, Jekyll, and Hugo.

I don’t see a reason to switch a site from one to the other if you and any collaborators are comfortable maintaining the runtime. The same goes for JS based tooling (I imagine), I just don’t node so good.

Personally, I use Hugo for new projects because it lowers the burden for content collaboration.

Templating is weird in Go, though if you’re working on themes. I like it now, but it’s procedural vertically and LISPish horizontally, if that makes any sense.

Usually it’s just me or me and another guy messing with that, and others often unfamiliar with anything except Java contributing vanilla markdown documentation. “Clone the repo, run this binary” is helpful there.

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