#halp

Halp is a simple templating Web and Gemini static generator, written in Perl 5.

It was created to scratch an itch: to generate both my personal Gemini capsule and my professional Web site using the same basic mechanism.

#prerequisites

1. Perl 5 (5.10 or later).
2. The following CPAN modules:
   1. Clone
   2. File::Copy::Recursive
   3. File::Slurp
   4. HTML::HTML5::ToText
   5. Test::Exception
   6. Text::Template
   7. Try::Tiny
   8. XML::Atom::SimpleFeed

Note that scripts/cpan-dependencies.sh will set these up for you, assuming you have CPAN installed.

#tests

$ prove -rv t

#license

halp is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License 3.0.

#credits

• Brad Taunt for an excellent suggestion on how to approach site navigation without hamburger menus.
• Mateus V. Farias for favicon-generator.

#test images

• "Ang and Momo" by Art of Li, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.
• "Flatlay Crafts" by Kelly Ishmael, licensed under CC0.
• "IBM PC-5150" by Jordiferrer, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
• "IMG_9976" by Jason Scott, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

#FAQ

#1. why Perl?

I have several goals for Halp:

1. Long-lived. Ideally, it'll last me for at least a decade, maybe more.
2. Highly portable. I don't want to be tied to the "big three" of macOS, GNU/Linux, and Windows - Plan 9 is still on my radar for the future.
3. Safe. This means, e.g., not having to roll my own crypto or template libraries.
4. Not a Google product.

This led me to a pretty short shortlist:

1. The Plan 9 dialect of C.
2. rc shell.
3. Perl 5.

Having spent a few years as a professional C coder I'm reluctant to reach for it for any text-heavy task. rc is okay but I don't find it terribly easy to read - I struggled a bit with Werc. That left ... Perl!

#2. what happened to the old logo?

As funny as it was, I decided I'd rather increase the exposure of a human artist, than promote slop.