Parsing reference links

[briandk]

So, suppose we're going to implement a two-pass solution for parsing the source text, and further suppose that solution goes as follows

Pass 1

• Parse each block
• Within the speech of each block, look for key/value pairs of links (either reference or inline, to be decided later)
• Add unique keys and their values to a sort of dictionary object (which we'll use for substituting in the link values in pass 2

  Pass 2

• Comb over the transcript data object and slug in the values for accompanying media references by looking each key up in the dictionary object

  Adding unique keys to the dictionary

@Wildoane suggests that an easy way to add a key iff it's unique is to first check whether the dictionary has it using hasOwnProperty, like so:

var addUniqueKeyToDictionary = function(dictionary, key, value) {
    if (!dictionary.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
        dictionary[key] = value;
    }
    return (dictionary)
}

addUniqueKeyToDictionary(myDictionary, "astronaut", "brian") 
// returns Object {astronaut: "brian"}

addUniqueKeyToDictionary(myDictionary, "astronaut", "harry") 
// returns Object {astronaut: "brian"}

addUniqueKeyToDictionary(myDictionary, "copilot", "harry") 
// returns Object {astronaut: "brian", copilot: "harry"}

[briandk]

Wil suggests that we could also think about a two-pass solution that expands reference-style links into inline links. So, suppose you have:

[some text][ref1]

[ref1]: https://github.com

On pass one, the reference links get parsed and added to a dictionary.

On pass two, all reference links are expanded out to inline links. So, the above text becomes:

[some text](https://github.com)

On pass 3 (if necessary) inline links are converted IMG elements (or whatever the media is)