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.. title: Nikola Blog Posts with Emacs
.. slug: nikola-posts-with-emacs
.. date: 2021-01-31 21:57:06 CET
.. tags: emacs, nikola, blog, productivity
.. category:
.. link:
.. description:
.. type: text
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:source-highlighter: pygments

Starting out my blog a few years ago first required picking one of the
available platforms.  I can still remember looking around for setups
and finding that there were so many to choose from.  My only real
requirements for the blog were easy to list:

* Static site generator
* Easy to interface with git and Emacs

This blog post is about the setup I picked, how I use it and why I
think it has been a good idea.

image::/images/emacs-nikola.png["Emacs and Nikola logos", align="center", width="200"]

pass:[<!-- TEASER_END -->]

=== Picking Nikola

I don't quite remember why I decided for
https://getnikola.com/blog/[Nikola] rather than
https://docs.getpelican.com/en/latest/[Pelican] but the perceived
differences were so small that I settled for first that started an
empty site with as few commands as possible.  When my first 'nikola
init' succeeded and I was able to view the site in Firefox, I had no
reason to leave again.

Indeed my experience with all of Nikola is a pretty pleasant one.
Even when I struggled with the program,
https://getnikola.com/contact.html[mailing list] support was always
able to solve my problems in very short times.

=== Emacs packages

Editing the posts in Emacs allows me to use a powerful text
environment controllable by keystrokes only.  As much as possible I
want to keep my fingers on the keyboard and not use the mouse.
Combining a few out of the box modes of Emacs gives me the environment
I am very productive in.  Editing post, I use the following Emacs
extensions.

==== Auto fill

The most basic support is 'M-x auto-fill-mode' to automatically refill
the text while I am typing.  This allows me to fully concentrate on
the text while entry.

==== Flyspell-mode

Selecting a target language with 'M-x ispell-change-dictionary' and
running 'M-x flyspell-mode' enables an automatic spelling checker
during entry.

==== Dictcc

When I cannot think of a fitting english word, I use 'M-x dictcc' to
call up an online translation service to find a good starting
candidate.

==== WordNut

The WordNut package is pleasant way to broaden my horizon while
writing in a foreign language.  Doing a 'M-x wordnut-search' starts
the journey into the english language in a separate buffer.  There are
a few hot keys defined in this mode like 'Enter' running a WordNut
lookup on the current word and 'l' to go back from following such a
link.  The character 'o' pops up the overview for the construct around
point.  In order to work this requires the 'wordnet' package.  In a
Debian based GNU/Linux it should be enough to do

[source,console]
----
dzu@krikkit:~$ sudo apt install wordnet
----

==== Magit

And because I keep the blog posts in a git repository, I use the
wonderful 'magit' interface allowing a few keystrokes to check in
changes.  Magit is by itself a wonderful tool for all of my git
projects.  Accessing it from the same environment the posts are
written in, makes regular tasks an absolute breeze.