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diff --git a/website/manual/Introduction.html b/website/manual/Introduction.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d907168 --- /dev/null +++ b/website/manual/Introduction.html @@ -0,0 +1,138 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> +<html> +<!-- Copyright (C) 2015 David Thompson + + +Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document +under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or +any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no +Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A +copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free +Documentation License". --> +<!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 6.0, http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ --> +<head> +<title>Haunt Reference Manual: Introduction</title> + +<meta name="description" content="Haunt Reference Manual: Introduction"> +<meta name="keywords" content="Haunt Reference Manual: Introduction"> +<meta name="resource-type" content="document"> +<meta name="distribution" content="global"> +<meta name="Generator" content="makeinfo"> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> +<link href="index.html#Top" rel="start" title="Top"> +<link href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" rel="index" title="Concept Index"> +<link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents"> +<link href="index.html#Top" rel="up" title="Top"> +<link href="Installation.html#Installation" rel="next" title="Installation"> +<link href="index.html#Top" rel="prev" title="Top"> +<style type="text/css"> +<!-- +a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none} +blockquote.indentedblock {margin-right: 0em} +blockquote.smallindentedblock {margin-right: 0em; font-size: smaller} +blockquote.smallquotation {font-size: smaller} +div.display {margin-left: 3.2em} +div.example {margin-left: 3.2em} +div.lisp {margin-left: 3.2em} +div.smalldisplay {margin-left: 3.2em} +div.smallexample {margin-left: 3.2em} +div.smalllisp {margin-left: 3.2em} +kbd {font-style: oblique} +pre.display {font-family: inherit} +pre.format {font-family: inherit} +pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif} +pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif} +pre.smalldisplay {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller} +pre.smallexample {font-size: smaller} +pre.smallformat {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller} +pre.smalllisp {font-size: smaller} +span.nocodebreak {white-space: nowrap} +span.nolinebreak {white-space: nowrap} +span.roman {font-family: serif; font-weight: normal} +span.sansserif {font-family: sans-serif; font-weight: normal} +ul.no-bullet {list-style: none} +--> +</style> + + +</head> + +<body lang="en"> +<a name="Introduction"></a> +<div class="header"> +<p> +Next: <a href="Installation.html#Installation" accesskey="n" rel="next">Installation</a>, Previous: <a href="index.html#Top" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Top</a>, Up: <a href="index.html#Top" accesskey="u" rel="up">Top</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> +</div> +<hr> +<a name="Introduction-1"></a> +<h2 class="chapter">1 Introduction</h2> + +<p>Haunt is a hackable static site generator written in Guile Scheme. A +static site generator assists an author with generating the HTML pages +that they publish on the web. Unlike “content management systems” +such as Wordpress or Drupal, static site generators are not dynamic +web applications (complete with a relational database) that build +pages on-the-fly. Instead, web pages are built in advance, on the +author’s computer, and copied to a web server when it is time to +publish changes. The consequence of this design is that the web +server no longer needs to run a complex, potentially insecure web +application that connects to a database to retrieve data. Static +files can be served easily by any generic web server. Since there is +no web application or database server to deal with, static websites +are easier to maintain, more secure, and resistant to high web traffic +(“slashdotting.”) Furthermore, the entire website is stored in +plain text, which allows the files to be version-controlled rather +than kept in a relational database with no concept of history that +needs to be backed up regularly. +</p> +<p>At the time that Haunt was conceived, there existed literally hundreds +of other static site generators. Why add another one? Haunt +differentiates itself from most other static site generators in that +it aspires to the Emacs philosophy of “practical software freedom.” +Not only is the source code available under a Free Software license, +as most static site generators are, it is designed to be easily hacked +and extended without altering the core source code. Haunt +purposefully blurs the line between document and program, author and +programmer, by embracing the notion of data as code. A Haunt-based +website is not simply data, but a computer program. This design +strategy encourages authors to automate repetitive tasks and empowers +them to extend the software with their own ideas. +</p> +<p>To make such a system work well, a general-purpose, extensible +programming language is needed. A traditional configuration file +format simply will not do. The programming language that we feel is +best suited to this task is Scheme, a clean and elegant dialect of +Lisp. We believe that by giving authors the full expressive power of +Scheme, they will be able to produce better websites and make better +use of their time than with less programmable systems and less capable +programming languages. Authors should feel empowered to hack the +system to make it do what they want rather than what some programmer +decided they should want. And perhaps most importantly, building +websites with Haunt should be <em>fun</em>. +</p> +<p>Websites written in Haunt are described as purely functional programs +that accept “posts”, text documents containing arbitrary metadata, +as input and transform them into complete HTML pages using Scheme +procedures. Haunt has no opinion about what markup language authors +should use to write their posts and will happily work with any format +for which a “reader” procedure exists. Likewise, Haunt also has no +opinion about how authors should structure their sites, but has sane +defaults. Currently, there exist helpful “builder” procedures that +do common tasks such as generating a blog or Atom feed. While the +built-in features may be enough for some, they surely will not be +enough for all. Haunt’s Scheme API empowers authors to easily tweak +existing components, write replacements, or add entirely new features +that do things no else has thought to do yet. +</p> +<p>Happy haunting! +</p> +<hr> +<div class="header"> +<p> +Next: <a href="Installation.html#Installation" accesskey="n" rel="next">Installation</a>, Previous: <a href="index.html#Top" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Top</a>, Up: <a href="index.html#Top" accesskey="u" rel="up">Top</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> +</div> + + + +</body> +</html> |