I wrote a Go program to generate my blog (which is just a static site hosted on Github pages). I made it so that I could write blog posts with a "widget builder" DSL, which is a good compromise for me between customizabiity for individual pages vs being able to write 95% of everything with markdown.

Example of DSL: https://github.com/liampulles/liampulles.github.io/blob/mast...

Blog post with more info, and my site: https://liampulles.com/moving-blog.html

From one of these user's most recent posts here https://j3s.sh/thought/blogs-rot-wikis-wait.html:

  p.s. i'm working on a new wiki to replace my website with - something new, from the ground up.

  git.j3s.sh/abyss - stay tuned

I'm not seeing the point here, TBH. What use-case does this author's single-binary satisfy?

1. You just want to serve static files from your blog? Install a webserver and knock yourself out in your editor, creating html and css (and maybe js) files.

2. You want to serve static files, with some dynamic crap stuffed inside here and there like the examples given in the article? Install the mod_php or equivalent for your webserver, and go mad with the editor.

3. You want fully generated content? Install one of the many backend frameworks in any language you want to use, and then go mad in your IDE.

What use-case does "one binary I wrote in Go" satisfy that isn't covered above? From everything I gleaned from the article, the PHP solution is even easier, while still technically being "one single binary".

EDIT: as an example of over-engineering, here is the authors code for a specific use-case:

    func ipHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
     w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "text/plain")
     fmt.Fprintf(w, r.Header.Get("X-Forwarded-For")+"\n")
    }
    ...
    http.HandleFunc("/ip", ipHandler)

    header('Content-Type: text/plain');
    echo $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];

I was using Python's Pelican static site generator for some time until I wanted to further customize the template fragments of a theme. Started running into issues and even helped fix a bug with the build command. Eventually I couldn't be bothered and wrote my own static site, except with Nextjs instead of plain HTML. Didn't take long and I don't have to mess around with awkward jinja templates anymore.

I like the idea, but I don't like that the result is not accessible. For example, there are no headlines, lists, or paragraphs—just a huge pre, or if you remove the 'thoughtbody' class from the p element, you can see how well a screen reader can read it.

I also have extensive experience with static sites, starting from using just Apache Directory Listing (Footer, Header, SSI), to writing my own in Perl, Ruby on Rails, Go, and TypeScript, using frameworks like Astro, Next, or Zola. Apart from the Apache setup and some Perl scripts, all of them had one thing in common: I used Markdown because it is easy to transform into HTML, which means it is accessible.

Related:

My website is one binary - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44345752 - June 2025 (1 comment)

My website is one binary (2022) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37964917 - Oct 2023 (168 comments)

My website is one binary - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30937515 - April 2022 (67 comments)

Rather than a compiled blob generated from a language propped up by Google (a company famed for killing beloved projects) that is compiled and therefore unmodifiable and unrecoverable if the source or toolchain is lost, it feels like these goals would have been better served by writing it as some POSIX-compatible sh scripts, or even a (pre-packaged/no-build) JavaScript bundle — we've been trying to kill that thing for decades, and it's still kicking!

Pleasantly surprised how jovial this post was. Thanks!

This is actually a great post. Love the idea of single binary and low dependencies to keep things as lean as possible.

Anytime I see someone writing without any capital letters, I stop and close the page. I understood that they care more about themselves (the writer) than the reader, so I let them write without my reading, as they signaled they don't care about it. Respectable.

I believe that similar concerns/aesthetics drove the development of https://redbean.dev/

I do this with CLOG, save-lisp-and-die

Yes hugo+template+isso (my Giorgi.com setup) has some hidden dependencies but you can get a fancy site in very little time. A dynamic web site is exciting to design, but require a lot of effort… I suggest to use Python Django: it has a tutorial for a blog!

So I guess one docker image is also one binary...

It's true, static sites are low energy.

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