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title: About
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<p>H3RALD.com was created in 2004 by Fabio Cevasco, a system architect, technical writer, programmer and IT enthusiast. It features over a hundred <a href="/archives/">articles</a> covering a wide range of topics, from programming to writing, productivity and traveling.</p>
<p>As of version 8, H3RALD.com is a completely static web site, except for a few <span class="caps">AJAX</span> calls. All the files are generated automatically thanks to the <a href="http://nanoc.stoneship.org/">nanoc</a> publishing system, an ingenious creation of <a href="http://www.stoneship.org/">Denis Defreyne</a>. Nanoc can be used to easily create static web sites using Ruby, as explained in <a href="http://www.h3rald.com/articles/take-back-your-site-with-nanoc/">this article</a>.</p>
<p>The following ruby libraries (gems) are used to compile this web site:</p>
<ul>
	<li><a href="https://rubygems.org/gems/nanoc">nanoc</a>, to generate the entire web site</li>
	<li><a href="https://rubygems.org/gems/extlib">Extlib</a>, in some custom Rake tasks</li>
	<li><a href="https://rubygems.org/gems/bb-ruby">BB-Ruby</a>, for BBCode support</li>
	<li><a href="https://rubygems.org/gems/builder/">Builder</a>, to create <span class="caps">RSS</span> and <span class="caps">ATOM</span> feeds</li>
	<li><a href="https://rubygems.org/gems/less/">Less</a>, for the <span class="caps">SASS</span> filter</li>
	<li><a href="https://rubygems.org/gems/therubyracer">The Ruby Racer</a>, to execute Javascript code (needed by Less)</li>
	<li><a href="https://rubygems.org/gems/redcloth/">RedCloth</a>, for Textile support</li>
	<li><a href="https://rubygems.org/gems/rdiscount">RDiscount</a>, for Markdown support</li>
	<li><a href="https://rubygems.org/gems/glyph">Glyph</a>, for Glyph support</li>
</ul>