#lang scribble/manual
@; SPDX-License-Identifier: BlueOak-1.0.0
@; This file is licensed under the Blue Oak Model License 1.0.0.
@(require "scribble-helpers.rkt"
racket/runtime-path)
@(require (for-label racket/base))
@title{Design Background}
The design and implementation of @italic{The Local Yarn} are guided by requirements that have
evolved since I started the site in 1999. I enumerate them here because they explain why the code is
necessarily more complicated than a typical blog.
@itemlist[
@item{@bold{The writing will publish to two places from the same source: the web server, and the
bookshelf.} The web server, because it’s a fun, fast way to publish writing and code to the whole
world (you knew that already); but also on bookshelves, because
@ext-link["https://thelocalyarn.com/excursus/secretary/posts/web-books.html"]{a web server is like
a projector}, and I want to be able to turn it off someday and still have something to show for
all my work. Plus, I just like printed books.}
@item{@bold{Changes are part of the content.} I like to revisit, resurface and amend things I’ve
written before. Views change, new ideas come along. In a typical blog the focus is always at
whatever’s happening at the head of the time stream; an addendum to an older post is, for all
practical purposes, invisible and nearly useless. I want every published edit to an article to be
findable and linkable. I want addenda to be extremely visible. These addenda should also be able
to mark major shifts in the author’s own perspective on what they originally wrote.}
@item{@bold{Everything produced here, both in print and on the web, should look good.}
@item{@bold{All the output should be produced (and reproducible) by automated processes.} No
clicking on buttons in apps to publish web pages or books.}
]
@nested[#:style 'inset]{
“Yet modest ornament with use combined @(linebreak)
Attracts the eye to exercise the mind.” @(linebreak)
—@ext-link["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Rogers"]{Samuel Rogers}
}
