Individual posts are edited in Markdown
format, using the MacDown editor on a
Macintosh. They
are translated to HTML via a shell script that does some
reformatting and vets the output using Tidy. Images are edited,
when necessary, using Acorn and NetPBM. Autodesk Graphic is used for
vector graphics.
Most of the not-quite dynamic sidebar content is
produced by really small Python scripts running from cron,
generating tiny HTML fragments that are transcluded into the pages
at rendertime. This allows the flexibility of dynamic page
generation with the benefits of static performance. More discussion
of this technique
here.
Iles’s Law:
There is always an easier way to do it. When looking directly
at the easy way, especially for long periods, you will not see it.
Neither will Iles.