[texworks] Help files for Scripting

[Paul A Norman]

Hi,

Well it seems a bit serendipitous, but Jonathan Fine over on
comp.text.tex at googlegroups.com
recently ran a zoom TeX Hour with  Yihui Xie as their special guest.

Yihui is a major contributor to R Markdown and the associated TinyTeX.
Reference—
Authoring Books with R Markdown: https://bookdown.org/yihui/bookdown/

That talk will probably appear sometime soon on their Youtube channel...
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw1FZfIX1w7h6fajdTgUOyJ6GYh82b-XQ

May give a better understanding of what we are looking at here.

On the 27th UK time, they'll next be having a
"look at how git can help us improve CTAN, TeXLive and reproducibility of
documents".
For more information keep an eye on – or join
https://groups.google.com/g/comp.text.tex

Kind regards,
Paul


On Mon, 3 May 2021 at 07:11, Henrik Skov Midtiby <henrikmidtiby at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi Paul and others,
>
> > We may need, whatever option is followed, some sort of "safe" server, as
> all
> > too often for commercial or other reasons, public "free" hosting options
> are
> > withdrawn often with little or no warning. May be in this case the
> situation is safer?
> That is a reasonable concern. I think that the risk is reduced, as open
> tools are being used
> and it should be possible to replace them if required.
> I also note that bookdown can be hosted outside of the github.com
> environment, eg. on gitlab
> which is described here:
> https://rlesur.gitlab.io/bookdown-gitlab-pages/
>
> Thanks,
> Henrik
>
>
>
> On Fri, 30 Apr 2021 at 09:40, Paul A Norman <paul.a.norman at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Thanks Henrik,
>>
>> That is certainly very helpful.
>>
>> "A nice example is the bookdown R package, that makes it easy to suggest
>> a change to a book through a github pull request.
>> You can see it in action here —
>> https://bookdown.org/yihui/bookdown/
>>
>> I know that other LaTeX documentation is produced through intermediary
>> formats, and this one is looking like a good approach.
>>
>> We may need, whatever option is followed, some sort of "safe" server, as
>> all too often for commercial or other reasons, public "free" hosting
>> options are withdrawn often with little or no warning. May be in this case
>> the situation is safer?
>>
>> I am quite happy to just dive into any realistic option, and MarkDown as
>> provided up by *Bookdown* is looking like a very viable option indeed.
>>
>> I am looking into HTML: to core MD converters, to get our main TWscript
>> API out from present and reusable as a foundation, the present help
>> producer we are using HelpNDoc V7.2.0.306 - March 23, 2021 has an export to
>> MD which I would check out
>> -- but for now I'm holding off for now in case anyone else has any
>> thoughts on all of this?
>>
>> Thanks again for the contribution Henrik much appreciated.
>>
>> Paul
>> .
>>
>> On Wed, 28 Apr 2021 at 18:34, Henrik Skov Midtiby <
>> henrikmidtiby at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Paul,
>>>
>>> > Whatever, it would be nice that a wider range of people can feel
>>> comfortable
>>> > to contribute over the years ahead, and that we have an accessible
>>> platform for that.
>>> I completely agree. The easier it is to contribute the better.
>>>
>>> A nice example is the bookdown R package, that makes it easy to suggest
>>> a change to a book through a github pull request.
>>> You can see it in action here
>>> https://bookdown.org/yihui/bookdown/
>>>
>>> To suggest a change, click the "Edit" button in the top left corner.
>>> Then an online editor will be opened with the current document, here you
>>> can make the change and send it in.
>>> Behind the scenes, github will fork the project and send a pull request
>>> to the maintainer.
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>> Henrik Skov Midtiby
>>>
>>> On Thu, 22 Apr 2021 at 13:51, Paul A Norman <paul.a.norman at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Thank you Dunncan,
>>>>
>>>> Yes the Markup / Pandoc approach is really good.
>>>> And there are a number of Markup dialects available, quite a few in
>>>> fact.
>>>>
>>>> In FreePascal – Lazarus I am presently using
>>>>
>>>> "*Markdown Processor for FPC*" (license Apache 2.0)
>>>> https://github.com/mriscoc/fpc-markdown
>>>>
>>>> "This is a Pascal (FPC) library that processes markdown to HTML.
>>>> At present the following dialects of markdown are supported:
>>>>
>>>> * The Daring Fireball dialect
>>>>  (see <https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/>)
>>>>
>>>> * Enhanced TxtMark dialect
>>>>  (translated from <https://github.com/rjeschke/txtmark>)
>>>>
>>>> * Almost complete support for CommonMark dialect
>>>>  (translated from <http://commonmark.org/>)
>>>>
>>>> (Wishlist: PEGDown - Github dialect).
>>>>
>>>> I have found that there has been a warm response to there being a CHM
>>>> available,
>>>> ironic considering this is a *TeX editor and perhaps often used for
>>>> making pdfs.
>>>>
>>>> So far, I can't find a smooth simple path from say (lua)pdfLaTeX to CHM.
>>>>
>>>> Of course you can go from html to CHM, but HelpNDoc might have made me
>>>> lazy on this as it does it all out of the box.
>>>>
>>>> For full out of the box pdf to HTML5 support I have worked with
>>>> pdf2htmlEX
>>>>
>>>> http://coolwanglu.github.io/pdf2htmlEX/
>>>>
>>>> pdf2htmlEX renders PDF files in HTML, utilizing modern Web
>>>> technologies,
>>>> aims to provide an accuracy rendering, while keeping optimized for Web
>>>> display.
>>>> Text, fonts and formats are natively preserved in HTML, math formulas,
>>>> figures and images are also supported.
>>>>
>>>> pdf2htmlEX is also a publishing tool, almost 50 options make it
>>>> flexible for many different use cases:
>>>> PDF preview, book/magazine publishing, personal resume..
>>>> But of course that is less than half of the road to a CHM,
>>>> but makes picture perfect representations of the pdf in HTML
>>>> and so is another way of producing beautiful *(La)TeX through to html..
>>>>
>>>> Or perhaps a closely controlled series of LaTeX packages that lend
>>>> themselves to HTML out put as well as pdf?
>>>>
>>>> Whatever, it would be nice that a wider range of people can feel
>>>> comfortable to contribute over the years ahead,
>>>> and that we have an accessible platform for that.
>>>>
>>>> Having said that CHM has been popular in the past, I've just looked at
>>>> the statistics for the downloads off the web site
>>>> and they show that over 70% of the finished document downloads, by what
>>>> appear to possibly be real people (not robots),
>>>> have been of the .pdf since January this year. Then the .doc version
>>>> comes in (minor though) well ahead of the chm.
>>>> more than the .doc version.
>>>>
>>>> So although (just) personally I still like CHMs :-)  maybe we could
>>>> move to a just .pdf. / html output?
>>>>
>>>> Kind regards,
>>>> Paul
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, 22 Apr 2021 at 21:52, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On 22/04/2021 2:44 a.m., Paul A Norman wrote:
>>>>> > Hi all,
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Stefan And I have had intermittent discussions via direct email on
>>>>> > updating/ upgrading the TeXworks Scripting help files.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > I just wanted to inquire if any one generally has thoughts on a good
>>>>> > system to produce those on  *Tex related or absolutely anything else
>>>>> at
>>>>> > all really.
>>>>>
>>>>> There's a lot of support nowadays for Markdown variations for input,
>>>>> with Pandoc involved in conversions to lots of output formats.
>>>>> TeXworks
>>>>> is unusual in that most people who'd be writing docs are likely to be
>>>>> familiar with TeX/LaTeX input, but if you're willing to give up the
>>>>> semantic markup, Markdown is definitely a lot easier to write.
>>>>>
>>>>> I was involved in development of the R help system, which uses a
>>>>> really
>>>>> quite painful LaTeX-like language for input.  (TeX isn't involved, it
>>>>> has its own parser, and is substantially different from actual LaTeX.)
>>>>> Several years ago a preprocessor was written that uses Markdown input
>>>>> instead, and it's very popular.
>>>>>
>>>>> Duncan Murdoch
>>>>>
>>>>> >
>>>>> > At present HelpNDoc is used, years ago they kindly gave us
>>>>> permission as
>>>>> > an OpenSource not for profit project, to use their help system
>>>>> > production application.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > It produces html, chm, and a pdf file.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > I have been thinking to remove all extraneous material and focus
>>>>> upon
>>>>> > the TeXworks scripting API particualrly, with perhaps some general
>>>>> > information on how to incorporate shims for the JavaScript side to
>>>>> help
>>>>> > people use the more advanced feature of modern JavaScript,
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Thinking that as the underlying Qt engine is not going to be updated
>>>>> by
>>>>> > QT for ever more frequent releases of  general JavaScript, this
>>>>> would
>>>>> > give an effective ability to maintain progress with EMCA's progress
>>>>> > indirectly through shims.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Truly I personally am committed to no particular course of action
>>>>> and
>>>>> > open to any ideas going forward.
>>>>> > Other than thinking: it would be good to open it up, so that others
>>>>> can
>>>>> > contribute material on a public platform.
>>>>> > I've just not yet been convinced by the documentation capability
>>>>> sides
>>>>> > of Git and like operations etc
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Current material ...
>>>>> >
>>>>> > https://twscript.paulanorman.com/docs/index.html
>>>>> > <https://twscript.paulanorman.com/docs/index.html>
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Any way any suggestions appreciated please :-)
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Thanks,
>>>>> > Paul
>>>>> >
>>>>> >
>>>>> >
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, 22 Apr 2021 at 18:44, Paul A Norman <paul.a.norman at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>
>>>>> Stefan And I have had intermittent discussions via direct email on
>>>>> updating/ upgrading the TeXworks Scripting help files.
>>>>>
>>>>> I just wanted to inquire if any one generally has thoughts on a good
>>>>> system to produce those on  *Tex related or absolutely anything else at all
>>>>> really.
>>>>>
>>>>> At present HelpNDoc is used, years ago they kindly gave us permission
>>>>> as an OpenSource not for profit project, to use their help system
>>>>> production application.
>>>>>
>>>>> It produces html, chm, and a pdf file.
>>>>>
>>>>> I have been thinking to remove all extraneous material and focus upon
>>>>> the TeXworks scripting API particualrly, with perhaps some general
>>>>> information on how to incorporate shims for the JavaScript side to help
>>>>> people use the more advanced feature of modern JavaScript,
>>>>>
>>>>> Thinking that as the underlying Qt engine is not going to be updated
>>>>> by QT for ever more frequent releases of  general JavaScript, this would
>>>>> give an effective ability to maintain progress with EMCA's progress
>>>>> indirectly through shims.
>>>>>
>>>>> Truly I personally am committed to no particular course of action and
>>>>> open to any ideas going forward.
>>>>> Other than thinking: it would be good to open it up, so that others
>>>>> can contribute material on a public platform.
>>>>> I've just not yet been convinced by the documentation capability sides
>>>>> of Git and like operations etc
>>>>>
>>>>> Current material ...
>>>>>
>>>>> https://twscript.paulanorman.com/docs/index.html
>>>>>
>>>>> Any way any suggestions appreciated please :-)
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> Paul
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
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