Source for strath-sdr.github.io

Here's the source code for the strath-sdr group blog.

This is the place for anyone to contribute new posts. Visitors just wanting to see the blog should go to strath-sdr.github.io instead.

Contributing

Here's a few words on how to contribute to the blog.

Adding yourself as an author

We try to automatically attach an author name and picture to each post. For this to work, there needs to be an entry for you in _data/authors.yml and an image in assets/avatars/.

If you want to be added to the authors list, either:

Pester @cramsay to do it, or...
See this commit for an example of what to add.

Writing a new post

Posts live in the _posts folder. See _posts for an example.

These are formatted with Markdown, just like any GitHub README pages. Here's a quick, interactive guide to writing in Markdown. Note that you can resort to writing HTML too, if needed.

Add any images you need in a new folder for your post inside the assets folder. You should be able to reference them in your post with something like ![A title for my pic](/assets/2019-11-15/tea.jpg)

Obviously give some thought to the content you're posting. This is a public site that represents the group. Don't shoot yourself in the foot if you want to publish something similar in a paper later on...

Previewing changes locally

So you've made some changes but would like to preview what the blog will look like before committing it?

For Linux/macOS users

There's an environment already specified for you using the nix package manager (see shell.nix). This is system that will run on all Linux distros, and has very nice deterministic properties (it's a pure functional language 😉).

First install nix:

$ curl https://nixos.org/nix/install | sh

Now just download this repo, cd into it and tell nix to do its thing:

$ nix-shell

This will fetch all the dependencies for Jekyll (the blog software GitHub pages uses), set up an environment, launch Jekyll and open the blog preview in a browser tab 🎉

Windows

@cramsay has a horrible Linux myopia, so there isn't (yet) such a streamline way to preview the blog on windows. The best way is to follow a guide to manually install Jekyll.

Maybe someone with Windows could help us make better instructions?

Submitting changes

Any changes committed to the master branch will automatically published to strath-sdr.github.io within a few seconds, thanks to GitHub Pages.

For any big updates (e.g. new posts or major theme changes) or things you're unsure of, it's best to submit a pull request rather than committing directly to master. This gives a chance for others to offer feedback before it is published to the blog.

As a rule of thumb, just ask if you're unsure! We're a friendly bunch and it would be great if this blog sees a bit of use.

dnorthcote/strath-sdr.github.io