mrombout
commented
1 year ago Asciidoctor.js actually works in the browser with some limitations according to the docs such as the missing support for using a TemplateConverter. If that is the case, I think we should definitely go for an online editor which can convert the on-page editor into HTML or PDF.
Editor
There are several advanced code editors that can be embedded with relative ease such as Ace (from Cloud9 IDE), Monaco (from VSCode), or CodeMirror.
- Ace
- Native AsciiDoc support.
- Monaco
- Unmaintained third-party support through theia-asciidoc-extension. It might need some work.
- We might be able to rip something out of asciidoctor/asciidoctor-vscode as well.
- Benefit of going for Monaco is that we might be able to use some of the code to build a custom VSCode extension.
- Actually, in this case we might as well build an extension, and tell users to use https://vscode.dev/ and install if there. Saves on setting up a GitHub pages with host as well? Downside is that we can't set-up a website with a quick "try me" function, I suppose.
- CodeMirror
- codemirror-asciidoc support from asciidoctor org.
Because of the native support Ace might be the best one to start with.
Preview
I think the Asciidoctor.js API returns HTML, so the easiest way to go about this is probably to just render than HTML in a separate view on the same page.
I am not sure if it's also possible to use asciidoctor-web-pdf in the browser. If so, it would be great if we could generate a PDF and preview that instead of the HTML.
Features
- Must
- Capable Editor
- A decently capable text editor should be built-in that makes it comfortable to write a story. It should support basic features such as line-wrapping, indendation, etc.
- Syntax Highlighting
- It must have support for highlighting AsciiDoc syntax. Preferably, it should also be reasonably trivial to add support for any additional AsciiHero syntax.
- Preview
- It must have a preview showing the AsciiDoc document converted into a gamebook using AsciiHero.
- Should
- Autocomplete
- It should have support for autocompleting at least cross-references, turns and choices so that it's easier to refer to segments without having to remember all exact strings.
- Could
- Outline
- It could be helpful to implement some sort of outline view that shows all sections (or at least all segments) so make it easier for the user to identify segment IDs without having to remember all of them.
- Won't
Perhaps it could be nice to offer an online version that takes AsciiHero documents and converts them to the export formats. It could be a simple REST API, or perhaps even a full-fledged editor with the functionality built-in.