Parts Horse re-launch preparation

[duckinator]

TODO:

• [x] Convert to fully-static website, minus search functionality (#114, #116)
• [x] #126
• [x] #127
• [x] #128
• [ ] Add common components:
  • [ ] #4
  • [ ] #5
  • [ ] #129
  • [ ] #130
  • [ ] #131

EDIT 2: Split everything into separate issues.

EDIT: I've talked to some folks and there is definitely interest. This issue is being turned into a discussion of what changes need to be made to lower the maintenance burden and allow it to use static hosting (or at least a PaaS like Heroku) instead of a VPS.

original text

I don't use Parts Horse enough to justify maintaining it just for myself. It's been up for over 3 years, with only a few days of downtime. Despite that, nobody has provided outside input on what components to add information about, and nobody has even mentioned using it. So, since it's already down at the moment due to a TLS problem, I'm just shutting down the server indefinitely instead of fixing it. **If you are interested in a central location to get information about various electrical components, please say so here. The reason I am setting Parts Horse aside is because there seems to be very little. If interest becomes apparent, I'll be a lot more likely to resume working on it in the future.**

[nbraud]

@duckinator I mentioned privately, but there was interest at the local hackerspace, just haven't had time and spoons to get things going there (esp. with the pandemic and people spending a lot less time in the electronics lab)

[duckinator]

@nbraud thank you for letting me know.

Based on what you mentioned privately, and spending the last few days thinking about this, I think the general starting point whenever I revisit Parts Horse will be:

1. remove the current search functionality
2. make the site fully-static
3. add fully-static search functionality

Fully-static search will likely make JavaScript required, but i'm willing to bend on my usual "JavaScript should be optional" stance in this case because of the huge maintainability improvements that can be achieved and the ability to use e.g. Netlify or GitHub Pages instead of managing a server myself.

[duckinator]

I also think adding data on the following before properly bringing the site back up will go a long way towards making the website actually useful in practice:

• [ ] 7400-series logic chips (#4)
• [ ] 4000-series logic chips (#5)
• [ ] LM-series ICs
• [ ] common microcontrollers (e.g. AVRs, Raspberry Pi Pico, MOS Technology 6502, Zilog Z80, etc)
• [ ] pages explaining how to read the values of resistors, capacitors, etc.

[duckinator]

It may also be worth looking into using https://pinout.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

[duckinator]

114 and #116 mean Parts Horse is fully static, but lacking search functionality. I do want to switch to a more standard site generator instead of a haphazard mess.

If you go to https://jamstack.org/generators/ and set the language to "Python" and the template system to "Jinja2", those will likely require the least effort for migration. (Since that's the setup the fully-custom system is using.)

[duckinator]

potentially-promising static site generators i have no experience with:

https://jamstack.org/generators/nikola/ https://jamstack.org/generators/lektor/ https://jamstack.org/generators/grow/

Netlify CMS ( https://www.netlifycms.org/ ) may also be worth looking into, but i don't have a good feel for how it works.

[duckinator]

As mentioned in #126 and #127, I might try switching to MkDocs and using the page metadata/frontmatter for information that's currently in the JSON files.

Since MkDocs has search functionality, this would solve #126, #127, and #128 in one step -- meaning the only remaining problem would be adding more content. :3

[duckinator]

I switched to Sphinx, which addressed #126, #127, and #128.