Local Development Setup Guide

This guide will help you set up a local development environment for this Jekyll site with fast reload times.

Prerequisites

1. Install Homebrew (if not already installed):

   /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
   

2. Install rbenv for Ruby version management:

   brew install rbenv
   echo 'eval "$(rbenv init -)"' >> ~/.zshrc
   source ~/.zshrc
   

3. Install Ruby using rbenv:

   rbenv install 3.2.2
   rbenv global 3.2.2
   

4. Verify Ruby installation:

   which ruby    # Should show ~/.rbenv/shims/ruby
   ruby -v      # Should show ruby 3.2.2 or similar
   

Project Setup

1. Install Bundler:

   gem install bundler
   

2. Install project dependencies:

   cd /path/to/project
   bundle install
   

Development Server

To clean the build folder, run:

bundle exec jekyll clean

1. Run the development server with live reload:

   bundle exec jekyll serve --livereload --config _config.yml,_config-dev.yml
   

Your site will be available at:

• Local: http://localhost:4000

Newsletter Popup Toggle (Modal Only)

The “Get Future Updates” modal popup is controlled by a single global flag in _config.yml:

• Disable modal (recommended default): show_newsletter_popup: false
• Enable modal: show_newsletter_popup: true

Notes:

• This flag only controls the JS modal popup; it does not disable the inline post newsletter section included via `<div class="post-newsletter" id="postNewsletter">

  Enjoyed this? Get notified when I post something new.

</div> `.

• The JS reads the flag from the meta tag emitted in _layouts/default.html (<meta name="show-newsletter-popup" ...>), so it stays consistent in dev and production.

If you change any JS under assets/js/ that ships to production, remember production serves the .min.js files; keep them in sync with their non-minified counterparts.

Build Times

The development configuration includes several optimizations:

• Incremental building
• Limited post building (only last 20 posts)
• Disabled unnecessary plugins
• Profile output for debugging build times

Git Ignore

The following files/directories are ignored in Git:

• _site/ (build output)
• .sass-cache/
• .jekyll-cache/
• .jekyll-metadata
• .bundle/
• vendor/
• System files (.DS_Store, etc.)
• IDE folders (.idea/, .vscode/)

Troubleshooting

If you encounter permission errors:

1. Make sure you’re using rbenv Ruby (not system Ruby)
2. Check which ruby points to rbenv
3. Try restarting your terminal

For slow build times:

1. Check the profile output
2. Consider disabling unused plugins in _config-dev.yml
3. Use --incremental flag for faster rebuilds