# The Static, Static Blog Generator
### May 17th, 2014
We all like publishing our thoughts online - but why is it such a bother to run a CMS?
Managing databases, updating software, and keeping track of our content often cuts into the most important activity: *expressing ourselves*.
The web makes it really easy to share our thoughts with millions of individuals from around the world. With it we are able to talk about the things we love.
Online publishing platform have a problem though - they require certain software to be installed on web servers in order to work. This often means running your own server or paying someone else who will setup the required parts for you.
After you setup the system, constant updates are required to make sure that any bugs in the software you are running are patched immediately to prevent your site from being hacked. This often means having a recent backup of your database ready at all times.
## Can't we simplify?
Because running websites and managing databases isn't always worth the effort, "Static Content Generators" like [Dr. jekyll](http://jekyllrb.com/) and [Mr. Hyde](http://hyde.github.io/) have begun to gain traction as people pre-build websites and then place the static HTML results onto their server.
This means the web server doesn't need to be configured with any special software or databases - it simply serves the generated static HTML files.
However, you still have to install the generator and setup a "build" process of sorts after every article.
## Meet Jr.
`Jr` is a truly *static*, static content generator. All the processing of your files happens on the requesting client's computer as needed. The whole system is written in client-side JavaScript. This means:
- minimal bandwidth requirements
- better search engine indexing
- awesome screen reader support
- *zero* security vulnerabilities
- and more!
However, the neatest thing about `Jr` is that you don't have to configure, setup, or install _anything_! Simply download the files, create your articles, and upload everything to your server!
done.
## GIT thee hence
If you want to be really awesome you can use `Jr` along with the ever useful *version-control* system [git](https://help.github.com/articles/set-up-git). This allows you to keep better track of changes insuring that you can always rollback your text to recover previous versions - very handy if you work with a team!
## What About Markup?
Like most systems, you can compose pages in `Jr` using the text-to-HTML format "[markdown](http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/)". You can also use plain HTML if you want.
## Getting Started
1. [Download](http://github.com/Xeoncross/Jr) `Jr`
2. Make your `[article-name].html` files
3. Paste the following code at the bottom of each page:
<script src="jr.js"></script>
Once you have created your pages then simply upload the system to your website and enjoy.
*P.S. Looking for a static social lifestream application? Checkout [MicroStream](https://github.com/Xeoncross/microstream).*
