Worry, overthinking and change

I’m going all-in on this one now. Hugo, nice Hugo (which I love, BTW) has just thrown me a wobbly. It is capable of tags and taxonomy, no problem. Except, this is a problem if I want to override it. It is virtually impossible using my limited knowledge.

I can disable it and I have, so that’s not the problem. I’ve then tried to implement one specific scenario which is on my wish list, that is, to dynamically generate tag pages from on-page hashtags (not in front matter, as Hugo requires).

Why? It is nice to have. For example, as I type, I might want to include a #hashatg here and then have it generate the relevant tag page without having to specifically add it for a second time into the front matter. Yes, this hashtag entry will need to be explicit as well, for example, by using a short code. Let’s say we could add it like this: {{ hashtag "hashtag" }}. It sounds simple enough but this one, I cannot figure out.

I could run a script before build — that’s one way, but ugh! Let’s move on to my Python generator, which should be able to handle this scenario natively. Since I plan to have it generate tag pages anyway, I could build it to allow both the Hugo-esq front matter tags as well as the on-page tags via some sort of short code system. A short code is necessary; it should not pick up any #hashtags on-page and generate a tag page from them by default. There are situations where that would be undesirable, for example, comments in code fences. We can’t have that.

I guess this is the kick I needed to get a move on and get building. It is scheduled to be rainy this weekend, so I have another good excuse.

I am also unreasonably fretting about another potential headache… there is search functionality on my blog. My concern is how this will fit into the Python generated blog. I’m not entirely sure why I am worrying about this as it was quite easy to setup in Hugo, and it should be fairly easy to move over. Yet, there is something nagging me about this. I imagine that I will soon find out when I try.

Maybe it comes from thinking about tags and hashtags. My blog does not use tags as I firmly believe in “search, don’t sort”. Since the search arc or radius is so wide with Lunr, it has served me well. I now suspect this worry is from the potential of losing this somehow by the switch.

Argh! I’m rambling and overthinking a mole hill when there is a mountain to climb right in front of me! Let’s go.