[Post] New year, new version

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 00:47:00 GMT

It’s been a year since I put online this website and I must admit, I haven’t published much since then. I quickly embarked on technical changes and then let things drag on. As I had some changes pending, the editorial aspect was completely neglected.

So, what’s new in this version?

Mainly technical improvements

From a technical point of view, nothing changes; this website still uses Astro! However, I brought some changes to reduce code duplication and improve my developer experience.

Simplified routing

I refactored my way of using Astro’s built-in routing. Previously, templates were duplicated both per content categories and per language.

Now I have a single page template responsible for choosing the layout without worrying about the language and I no longer translate any routes in the source code. This means that if tomorrow I want to reuse my code for another website and I prefer to use “articles” instead of “posts” in the URL, this is now possible!

Use of view transitions

Now that Firefox also supports view transitions, I decided to test them on this website. I’m not using any fancy animations. However, navigation between pages now seems smoother, which should please those used to single-page applications (SPA).

Bug fixes

I noticed a performance issue on mobile due to the SVG used for the background. It seems the best way to fix this is to use a static image instead of my previous method. Doing so led me to adjust other things, such as the website’s colors.

I also cleaned up the source code after noticing it contained extra, unwanted attributes. It seems that when using spread syntax with slots, Astro automatically adds slot as an attribute instead of removing it after use.

Graphical changes

The most noticeable change is probably the logo. I wasn’t satisfied with the previous version and the rendering was good in Firefox quick links or in Google search results. The first point is now fixed. All that remains is to wait and see how the rendering on Google improves.

Then, I also updated how the site settings are displayed. While changing the theme might be considered a secondary feature, switching between languages should be immediately visible to website users. So I removed the modal — only for large viewports, like a computer screen — and everything is now configurable directly from the navigation bar.

Refined dark theme

The dark theme has been improved. At least, I hope so. I mostly use the websites light mode and only switch to dark mode in the evening or at night. When I switch over, I also automatically activate Redshift. This was an important point I hadn’t considered a year ago, and the color choices were therefore rather disappointing.

This new dark theme is… darker, and the blue-grey tone is now respected by Redshift. At least, with my settings. I took the opportunity to update the shadows and border colors. I think, overall, this looks better than before.

Minor layout changes

This new version includes:

larger blank spaces in various parts of the site, which I think improves readability;
a different layout for page titles and cover images;
a more reasonable size for the buttons available in code blocks.

What’s next?

I think what I wrote a year ago in “A New Site” still applies. I have improved my development experience but I already see other improvements that are maybe more focused on the editorial side than development this time.

I will also try to post a bit more often. In particular, I plan to write an article on how I create my routes because I have been asked to do so and because route translation management is a question that comes up often. That said, I make no promises regarding its publication date…

In the meantime, I wish you a happy new year!

[Post] A new website

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 14:40:00 GMT

After about fifteen years of using my old domain name (armandphilippot.com for the record), I decided to start from scratch. It’s now time to present you the first version of armand.philippot.eu; welcome!

Introducing armand.philippot.eu

My technical choices

With this new website, I’m saying goodbye to Next.js and WordPress. I choose to build a static website, or almost. Thanks to Astro, I can have a static website with API routes to deal with some features like the contact form.

My contents are written with Markdown using the MDX format to extend my formatting options a bit with the help of Remark/Rehype plugins and custom components.

Speaking of components, the ones that required a bit of interactivity are build using Web components. With Astro, the template is easy to write : you just need to write an Astro component inside your custom tag. Then, all you need to do is to implement the interactivity with Javascript.

For the search feature, I’m using Pagefind which can build an index for static websites. In the future, I’d like it to be better integrated in my design but for now, as long as it serves its purpose it’s good enough!

Content types

I chose to divide my contents by type. Currently, you will get access to:

guides: a somewhat long format that includes step-by-step procedures to achieve a result,
notes: some raw contents (meaning unstructured, bordering on draft) for my personal usage before all,
bookmarks: some links I find interesting and I want to share or to save to find them again later,
a blogroll: some links to personal websites I like to read,
a blog (posts and dedicated categories): I’ll publish there contents that doesn’t seem to fit elsewhere,
some tags: you can retrieve the different content types on a same page filtered by topic.

This structure could evolve later if I choose to introduce new types of content.

Features

I haven’t added anything fancy. I want a simple content-driven website before all. So the features are the following:

a contact form,
a search field available next to the menu,
some settings allowing you to update:
- the language (English or French),
- the website theme (light or dark),
- the code blocks theme (light or dark) independently of the website theme.

This website is bilingual. However, the translation or the rewriting in English will not be necessarily available at the same time as the French version. Writing takes time, so translating/rewriting (without using an automatic translator) takes even more time. Another point that seems important to me: in the future, some content may be exclusive to a language… I will decide on a case-by-case basis if the opportunity arises.

What’s next?

Improving my development experience

Currently, I’m okay with my choice of technologies. However, I know I have some technical point to improve. I have some issues in development mode. Thankfully they are not blocking to build my website. So I’ll will first search how to improve that.

Automating the build process

I’m not using an host provider like Vercel or Netlify - that allowed to rebuild my website depending on my repository activity - but a VPS. So I’d like to implement something similar (but not necessarily as accomplished) instead of having to rebuild my website manually with each new content. I think that without automating this aspect, I risk getting bored and not posting as often as I would like.

Rethinking the blog posts organization

Blog posts are not meant to be updated (unless a typo or a broken link). So I think another organization could be helpful at least to organize myself.

If I’m doing that, I think I will add some archive pages! They could be helpful to easily find a blog post by date. This change also implies a change in the URL of the page. I’m still hesitating between a classification by year only (/blog/2025/new-website) or by year and by month (/blog/2025/01/new-website). I’ll think about it.

New features

I’d like to add a comment management system and to explore the idea of Webmentions. It’s not urgent, but this is an idea I want to keep in mind for later.

What’s next? Well, I think all I need to do is to add more contents to this website!

Changelog category's feed

[Post] New year, new version

Mainly technical improvements

Simplified routing

Use of view transitions

Bug fixes

Graphical changes

Improved navigation sidebar

Refined dark theme

Minor layout changes

What’s next?

[Post] A new website

Introducing armand.philippot.eu

My technical choices

Content types

Features

What’s next?

Improving my development experience

Automating the build process

Rethinking the blog posts organization

New features