Fine tune the frontpage

content/css/_main.scss

@@ -68,7 +68,14 @@ ol.posts {
   list-style-type: none;
   list-style-image: none;
   padding: 0;
-  margin: 0;
+  margin: 0 0 24px 0;
+
+  li {
+    span.date {
+      width: 50px;
+      display: inline-block;
+    }
+  }
 }
 
 pre, .plaincode{

content/index.haml

@@ -5,12 +5,20 @@ title: Home
   %h2 Ariejan's Blog
 .content_wrap.nobg
   %section#middle_content
-    #posts
+    :markdown
-      - articles_by_year.each do |year, articles|
+      Hi! Welcome to _ariejan.net_. Since 1999 this has been my digital home in one form or the other. I hope you find what you're looking for.
-        %h2= year
 
-        %ol.posts
+    #posts
-          - articles.each do |article|
+      %h3 Recent blog posts
-            %li
+
-              %span.date= get_short_date(article)
+      - articles_by_year_for_two_columns.each do |column_articles|
-              = link_to article[:title], article.path
+        .one_half
+          - column_articles.each do |year, articles|
+
+            %h2= year
+
+            %ol.posts
+              - articles.each do |article|
+                %li
+                  %span.date= get_short_date(article)
+                  = link_to article[:title], article.path

lib/helpers/post.rb

@@ -1,13 +1,21 @@
   module PostHelper
-    def articles_by_year
+    def articles_by_year(articles)
       hash = Hash.new { |h, k| h[k] = [] }
-      sorted_articles.inject(hash) do |output, article|
+      articles.inject(hash) do |output, article|
         year = attribute_to_time(article[:created_at]).year
         output[year] << article
         output
       end
     end
 
+    def articles_by_year_for_two_columns
+      half_mark = sorted_articles.size / 2
+      half_one  = sorted_articles[0..half_mark-1]
+      half_two  = sorted_articles[half_mark..-1]
+
+      [articles_by_year(half_one), articles_by_year(half_two)]
+    end
+
     def get_short_date(post)
       attribute_to_time(post[:created_at]).strftime('%d %b')
     end