From cdfdf8a6ec49051733dba3d01d6c2f4033907ec1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Wynn Wolf Arbor Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2020 16:59:43 +0200 Subject: posts: Add a new post: "A New Look, Some Updates" --- posts/a-new-look.md | 122 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ posts/img/landing-page-dark.png | Bin 0 -> 91616 bytes posts/img/old-landing-page.png | Bin 0 -> 87722 bytes 3 files changed, 122 insertions(+) create mode 100644 posts/a-new-look.md create mode 100644 posts/img/landing-page-dark.png create mode 100644 posts/img/old-landing-page.png (limited to 'posts') diff --git a/posts/a-new-look.md b/posts/a-new-look.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d6c4d3 --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/a-new-look.md @@ -0,0 +1,122 @@ +title: A New Look, Some Updates +date: 2020-06-13 +author: Wynn Wolf Arbor + +It has now been approximately [one year](beton-brut.html) since the +initial publication of this site and its new design. Looking through the +[commits](https://git.oriole.systems/site/log/?qt=grep&q=css%3A) that +changed the CSS I can't see any big changes; overall the core design +remained very stable. That is (or, rather, was) especially true for the +design of the [landing page](/). Why _was_? Well, as you might have +noticed, it now has a whole new look. + +Gone is the previous brutalist, blocky, beautifully Oriole-yellow page, +replaced by a simple minimalist top-to-bottom list of articles. I even +decided to throw in a quick introduction as well. Whilst I still love +the old design very dearly (it was based on countless design iterations, +ideas, and experiments spanning about 6 months in total), it always +clashed with all other content on this site. That was, of course, in a +way intentional - the idea was to be as uncompromising as possible. For +the time, it was the right thing to do. I was going through an extreme +amount of turmoil (both externally and internally), and finally had +something completely for myself with that design. It became a sort of +safe haven, a space where I did not have to care much about the needs of +others; a space in which I expressed myself without worry. + +
+ The old landing page +
oriole.system's old landing page
+
+ +Over the last 5 months I have had lots of time to think and reflect, and +learned a lot about myself. The current design therefore reflects a +new-found confidence, and is more an example of easiness than of +uncompromising and extremely idiosyncratic design. Maybe some time in +the future I'll be lucky enough to re-use parts of the old art style and +keep it around for something that is more in tune with its complicated +and personal history. + +## git-http-backend(1) + +As [mentioned](the-long-journey-to-cgit.html#Future%20work) in the +previous post, an outstanding item for +[git.oriole.systems](https://git.oriole.systems) was support for the +"smart"[^1] HTTP protocol as supplied by +[git-http-backend(1)](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-http-backend). This +is now implemented via a small +[patch](https://git.oriole.systems/pramantha/tree/www-apps/cgit/files/cgit-1.2.3-git-http-backend.patch?id=3e255c257f3a07f1515e20a4f45a6505eec49d40) +for cgit: Whenever cgit is asked to handle a "cloneable" item, instead +of caching and serving it itself, it executes `git-http-backend(1)` and +lets that handle the rest. The advantage of this approach is that +there's no additional configuration needed on the side of the web +server, barring the addition of the environment variables +`GIT_PROJECT_ROOT` and `GIT_HTTP_EXPORT_ALL` required for +`git-http-backend(1)` itself. + +To my knowledge, it is not easily possible with Caddy 1 to set up the +complex[^2] structure needed to run cgit and `git-http-backend(1)` at +the same URL. Caddy 2 brings much improved [path matching +support](https://caddyserver.com/docs/caddyfile/matchers#path), so I may +change this again once I have migrated everything. For now, this simple +setup suffices. + +## Testing The Waters + +I've also been working on getting things ready for the inevitable +migration to Caddy 2. There's still much to be done, and I don't think +I'll be ready for at least another month. Firstly I want to give Caddy 2 +some more time before I use it as a stable service (2.1 is already in +[beta](https://github.com/caddyserver/caddy/releases/tag/v2.1.0-beta.1) +and contains a lot of fixes). Secondly I have to make sure that every +single part of my infrastructure will continue to work with Caddy 2, and +that means a lot of testing. + +Since I had been working on setting up cgit anyway, I decided to draft a +new Caddyfile that is compatible with Caddy 2. For the most part, it +went surprisingly well. I generally prefer the new syntax, and pretty +much all new features are integrated very cleanly. The documentation +could be improved in a few places, however. Most of the time there is a +clear lack of cross-references, and if you don't know how a certain part +of the configuration is called, it is very hard to search for it. + +There was one minor hitch to this effort. It seemed that no matter what +I did, I couldn't get the `fastcgi` transport to work with slowcgi: the +`PATH_INFO` variable would just remain empty. After a few hours of +testing and digging, I could finally identify the root cause. Turns out +there was an ever-so-subtle bug in Caddy's handling of the `split` +directive. I +[reported](https://github.com/caddyserver/caddy/issues/3490) the issue +upstream and sent along a small [pull +request](https://github.com/caddyserver/caddy/pull/3491) that was +promptly merged. + +## Dark mode and `prefers-color-scheme` + +Finally, just yesterday I updated the whole site to respect the +[`prefers-color-scheme`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@media/prefers-color-scheme) +CSS media feature. Whoever prefers dark websites and has told their +operating system or browser[^3] to use dark mode when available will +hopefully rejoice in not having their eyes burnt out when visiting my +site. This is arguably a small change, and inconsequential in the grand +scheme of things, but it was lots of fun to work on after the rather +more stressful crunch of getting cgit to work nicely. + +
+ The landing page in dark mode +
The landing page in dark mode
+
+ +I'm still playing around with the overall colour choice and composition, +so you may see more or less significant changes down the road. The main +focus will still be the default light design (as that is the one I +prefer), but dark mode will not just be an afterthought. Feedback on +this is very much welcome. + +And by the way, if you are interested in how this site is put together, +check out its [Git repository](https://git.oriole.systems/site/). + +[^1]: I really wish it had a better name... +[^2]: Read: it needs regular expressions, which means that now I have + one more problem. +[^3]: For Firefox, try setting `ui:systemUsesDarkTheme` to `1` in + `about:config`. diff --git a/posts/img/landing-page-dark.png b/posts/img/landing-page-dark.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..29c4436 Binary files /dev/null and b/posts/img/landing-page-dark.png differ diff --git a/posts/img/old-landing-page.png b/posts/img/old-landing-page.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0fac61f Binary files /dev/null and b/posts/img/old-landing-page.png differ -- cgit v1.2.3-2-gb3c3