Move previewer to introspectable library

sonnyp commented 1 year ago

Right now we have 2 previewers:

one in JavaScript called Previewer/Internal.js for "inline preview" (preview directly in the Workbench window)

one in Vala called Previewer/External.js for "out of process" preview (preview in a separate process)

The idea here would be to rewrite the previewer as an introspectable library that can be used in different context such as workbench inline preview, windowed preview and out-of-process.

Reduce maintenance effort by not having to implement things twice – see for example issues with "vala" tag https://github.com/sonnyp/Workbench/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Avala
Remove code duplication
Cleaner architecture for async/out-of-process use cases
Can be used in GNOME Builder
Can be used easily to support more languages

vixalien commented 5 months ago

Wouldn't an "introspectable library" need to be written in something other than JavaScript. Maybe Vala?

sonnyp commented 5 months ago

Correct, most likely in C.

workbenchdev / Workbench

Move previewer to introspectable library #153