Jekyll vs Poole

Pros of Minimal Mistakes

• More feature-rich and customizable than Jekyll or Poole
• Extensive documentation and active community support
• Responsive design with built-in SEO optimization

Cons of Minimal Mistakes

• Steeper learning curve compared to Jekyll and Poole
• May be overkill for simple blog projects
• Requires more configuration to get started

Code Comparison

Jekyll (basic structure):

---
layout: post
title: "Welcome to Jekyll!"
---

Poole (basic structure):

---
layout: post
title: Hello World
---

Minimal Mistakes (basic structure):

---
layout: single
title: "Welcome to Minimal Mistakes!"
header:
  overlay_image: /assets/images/header.jpg
  caption: "Photo credit: [**Unsplash**](https://unsplash.com)"
---

Minimal Mistakes offers more advanced front matter options out of the box, allowing for greater customization of individual pages and posts. While Jekyll and Poole provide simpler structures, Minimal Mistakes includes additional features like header images and captions by default.

Pros of Jekyll Now

• Extremely simple setup process, ideal for beginners
• Ready-to-use theme with minimal configuration required
• Includes social media integration out of the box

Cons of Jekyll Now

• Limited customization options compared to Jekyll and Poole
• Fewer themes and plugins available
• May require more manual updates for new features

Code Comparison

Jekyll Now:

name: Your Name
description: Web Developer from Somewhere
avatar: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/barryclark/jekyll-now/master/images/jekyll-logo.png

Jekyll:

Jekyll::Hooks.register :posts, :pre_render do |post|
  # Custom logic here
end

Poole:

<nav class="masthead-nav">
  {% for nav in site.nav %}
    <a href="{{ nav.url }}">{{ nav.title }}</a>
  {% endfor %}
</nav>

Jekyll Now focuses on simplicity with a straightforward YAML configuration. Jekyll offers more advanced features like hooks for customization. Poole provides a clean HTML structure for easy theming.

While Jekyll Now is perfect for quick starts, Jekyll and Poole offer more flexibility and control for developers who need advanced features or extensive customization options.

Pros of Beautiful-Jekyll

• Ready-to-use, feature-rich theme with minimal setup required
• Extensive customization options through YAML configuration
• Built-in support for Google Analytics, Disqus comments, and social sharing

Cons of Beautiful-Jekyll

• Less flexible than Jekyll for advanced customization
• Larger file size and potentially slower build times
• May require more effort to strip down unwanted features

Code Comparison

Beautiful-Jekyll configuration:

title: My Website
author: John Doe
navbar-links:
  About Me: "aboutme"
  Resources:
    - Beautiful Jekyll: "https://beautifuljekyll.com"
    - Learn markdown: "https://www.markdowntutorial.com/"

Jekyll configuration:

title: My Jekyll Site
author:
  name: John Doe
  email: john@example.com
permalink: /:categories/:year/:month/:day/:title:output_ext

Poole configuration:

title: Poole
tagline: 'The Jekyll Butler'
description: 'Base theme for Jekyll sites by @mdo.'
url: https://getpoole.com
paginate: 1

Beautiful-Jekyll offers a more comprehensive out-of-the-box solution with pre-built features, while Jekyll and Poole provide greater flexibility for custom implementations. Jekyll is the core engine, Poole is a minimalist starting point, and Beautiful-Jekyll is a full-featured theme built on top of Jekyll.

Pros of minimal

• Extremely lightweight and simple, focusing on content
• Easy to customize with minimal CSS and HTML
• Faster loading times due to its minimalistic approach

Cons of minimal

• Limited built-in features compared to Jekyll and Poole
• Less flexibility for complex site structures
• Requires more manual customization for advanced functionality

Code comparison

minimal

<header>
  <h1>{{ site.title | default: site.github.repository_name }}</h1>
  <p>{{ site.description | default: site.github.project_tagline }}</p>
</header>

Jekyll

{% for post in site.posts %}
  <h2><a href="{{ post.url }}">{{ post.title }}</a></h2>
  <p>{{ post.excerpt }}</p>
{% endfor %}

Poole

<div class="posts">
  {% for post in paginator.posts %}
  <div class="post">
    <h1 class="post-title">
      <a href="{{ post.url | absolute_url }}">
        {{ post.title }}
      </a>
    </h1>
    <span class="post-date">{{ post.date | date_to_string }}</span>
    {{ post.content }}
  </div>
  {% endfor %}
</div>

Pros of academicpages

• Specifically designed for academic personal websites
• Includes pre-built sections for publications, talks, and teaching
• Easy to customize with YAML front matter

Cons of academicpages

• Less flexible for non-academic use cases
• Fewer themes and customization options compared to Jekyll
• May require more setup time for those unfamiliar with academic website structures

Code Comparison

academicpages:

---
title: "Paper Title Number 1"
collection: publications
permalink: /publication/2009-10-01-paper-title-number-1
excerpt: 'This paper is about the number 1. The number 2 is left for future work.'
date: 2009-10-01
venue: 'Journal 1'
---

Jekyll:

---
layout: post
title: "Welcome to Jekyll!"
date: 2022-05-01 12:00:00 -0500
categories: jekyll update
---

Poole:

---
layout: post
title: Example content
---

<div class="message">
  Howdy! This is an example blog post that shows several types of HTML content supported in this theme.
</div>

The academicpages code snippet showcases its focus on academic content, while Jekyll and Poole examples demonstrate their more general-purpose nature. Academicpages provides specific fields for academic publications, whereas Jekyll and Poole offer more flexibility for various types of content.

Pros of Gatsby

• Faster performance due to static site generation and optimized asset loading
• Rich ecosystem with a wide variety of plugins and themes
• Built-in GraphQL support for efficient data querying

Cons of Gatsby

• Steeper learning curve, especially for developers new to React and GraphQL
• Longer build times for large sites compared to Jekyll and Poole
• Higher resource consumption during development and build processes

Code Comparison

Jekyll:

---
layout: post
title: "Welcome to Jekyll!"
---

# Welcome

**Hello world**, this is my first Jekyll blog post.

Poole:

---
layout: post
title: Welcome to Poole
---

<div class="message">
  Welcome to Poole!
</div>

Gatsby:

import React from "react"
import { graphql } from "gatsby"

export default function BlogPost({ data }) {
  const post = data.markdownRemark
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>{post.frontmatter.title}</h1>
      <div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: post.html }} />
    </div>
  )
}

export const query = graphql`
  query($slug: String!) {
    markdownRemark(fields: { slug: { eq: $slug } }) {
      html
      frontmatter {
        title
      }
    }
  }
`