The first post

This is the first post I actually write in Jekyll. I decided to start writing a blog mainly to have a place where I can put knowledge and random thoughts. I imagine many blogs start like this.

This first post is intended to get the Jekyll running and learn how it integrates with github pages. I'm using poole as a starting point.

Installing Jekyll

My first try was installing Jekyll from the Ubuntu repositories and then trying to run jekyll serve from the root folder of my poole blog, but that didn't work. After that I tried to install Jekyll with gem install jekyll, but I got an error. Installing 'ruby-all-dev' from the Ubuntu and then repeting gem install jekyll did the job.

Note that when running Jekyll locally to preview posts before committing to github the command you actually want to use (from the root folder) is

jekyll serve --watch --baseurl '/'

The watch is very useful when editing posts, since Jekyll will automatically rebuild the post after it is saved.

The baseurl option is important because we have set a baseurl in the _config.yml file, but we want it to be an empty string when running Jekyll locally.

Creating new post

Simply create a file with a name in the format YYYY-MM-DD-the-tittle-of-your-post.md in the _posts folder. In the beginin of the file, add lines below

---
layout: post
title: Tittle of your post
---

and start writting using the Markdown syntax.

I won't enter in details, since there are better places to learn about Jekyll. A good place is Jekyll's own page.

If you need helo with the markdown syntax, this site is a good. one. If you only need a quick reference, this site is a good one.

Defining new HTML tags

If you want to add new HTML tags that you can use when creating posts, edit the `public/css/my_additions.css' file to add the tag. For instance, I have added the tat 'kbd' in 'my_additions.css' and used extensivelly in the post "Using Ebib to manage Bibtex files" to typeset keyboard keys.

Entering Unicode characters

You can enter any unicode character in Emacs with C-x 8 Enter↵. Then you need to type the name of the unicode character you want to insert (helm mode is very useful here).

A list of common unicode characters is given below

• ↑: UPWARDS ARROW
• ↓: DOWNWARDS ARROW
• ←: LEFTWARDS ARROW
• →: RIGHTWARDS ARROW
• ↵: DOWNWARDS ARROW WITH CORNER LEFTWARDS

Tip: If you have a unicode character in buffer and you want to know its name, use C-u C-x =. Emacs will tell you a lot of things about the character, including its name.