I have restructured my web site. Again.

What I have been hoping for is a really simple web site, so I can just edit text/markdown files, sync them directly to my server and be done with it.

I am trying to use my computer as little as possible, and not to need it for writing. I find the computer rife with distractions, and want it to be as minimal as I can make it. This is why I do things like use the Supernote or Palm M500 to type and edit text documents.

This new web site is made using a Flat File CMS called HTMLy. I tried a bunch of Flat File CMSs, and found a lot of taglines shouting about how simple they were, followed by me spending hours trying to debug and customize them, or discover that they didn't have a functional RSS option. Very silly.

I tried one more, HTMLy, and was shocked to discover that it worked very quickly and well the first time and just did what I wanted. Amazing!

I had been using Publii, which is a fantastic piece of software. It is a GUI-based static site generator, where you create everything in the app and then hit the sync button to sync it to your FTP server.

This is not a criticism of Publii, which is really good software. This is about me trying to find a good workflow to maximize my focus ad minimize clutter. because I wound up with drafts in text files, and then would get tangled up about which version to edit as I was posting. What I wanted was a system where I would edit the files directly, in their file structure, and then just sync that to my FTP server. And that's what I now have!

If I write on the Supernote, I have the added step of syncing the Supernote to Dropbox, and then syncing the Dropbox folder to the FTP server. If I write on the Palm PDA, I have to sync those files from the SD card too. But that's not bad. Things stay simple and tidy. I am using FreeFileSync as a nice GUI piece of software to sync the local files to the FTP server. It works nicely.

All in all, pretty good!