Welcome to the blog. This first post does double duty: it says hello, and it shows you exactly how every future post gets published.

How to add a new post

  1. Create a file in the _posts/ directory named YYYY-MM-DD-a-short-slug.markdown — for example 2026-07-11-debugging-a-race-condition.markdown. The date and slug in the filename become part of the post’s URL, so pick them deliberately.
  2. Start the file with front matter — the block fenced by --- lines at the top of this very file. At minimum set layout: post, a title, and a date. categories is optional.
  3. Write the body in Markdown below the front matter.
  4. Commit and push to the master branch. GitHub Pages rebuilds the site automatically, and the post is live in a minute or two. That’s the whole workflow — no build step to run yourself.

Previewing locally (optional)

If you want to see changes before pushing, run the local server:

bundle exec jekyll serve

Then open http://localhost:4000/DavesCodeBlog/. The server rebuilds on every save, so you get a live preview as you write.

Markdown, including code

Standard Markdown works — bold, italics, links, lists, blockquotes, and fenced code blocks with syntax highlighting:

def greet(name)
  puts "Hi, #{name}!"
end

greet("world")

That’s it. Delete this post whenever you like — it’s just here to get you started.