txt_to_html

A .txt to .html parser that makes pretty documents with quasi-markdown.

INSTALLATION:

Install the latest stable release (tested on macOS and Ubuntu) with:

pip install https://github.com/tchlux/txt_to_html/archive/1.1.1.zip

In order to install the current files in this repository (less stable) use:

pip install git+https://github.com/tchlux/txt_to_html.git

USAGE:

COMMAND LINE:

The execution of the program looks like:

python -m txt_to_html <source text file> [--online] [--no-appendix] [--no-show] [--no-justify] [output folder]

This outputs a .html ready to be viewed in a browser.

Default behavior is to use local resources for displyaing HTML and to output in the current working director.

If the --online argument is given, resource files are internet-accessible and nonlocal.

If the --no-appendix argument is given, the appendix section is removed from the html document.

If the --no-show argument is given, the resulting HTML file is not opened in a browser upon completion.

If the --no-justify argument is given, the resulting HTML file has body text which will not be justified (layout that normalizes line width).

If the [output directory] argument is given, output file is saved in that directory, which must already exist.

PYTHON:

import txt_to_html
txt_to_html.parse_txt("<txt source file>")

HOW IT WORKS:

Reads the txt file into a heirarchical format of different "syntax" lists. Processes the syntax list with a series of "blocks". Outputs html document. Uses custom markdown syntax and a custom regex implementation (prohibits Windows usage and requires cc to point to valid C compiler). See help(txt_to_html) for listing of the acceptable quasi-markdown syntax.

VERSION HISTORY:

See this file for full list.

BUGS

• Not having an extra newline after ordered list causes incorrect parse (line without paragraph wrapper).
• Unordered and ordered lists do not work within subtext block, all things at same indent level should be in same subtext.
• The "<< >>" doesn't seem to be working properly, won't overwrite existing properties.

IMPROVEMENTS

• Redo the "text with a hyperlink" to be "(text){{link}}"
• Make subtext line that is empty behave like an empty new line.
• Adjust print format settings to make margins and justification.
• Make all new lines matter. Get rid of the Latex double-new-line for paragraph and extras are ignored.
• Generate a "Table of Contents" with links
• Generate one 'test' file that demonstrates all Syntax.
• The algorithm used in this implementation is generally slow in Python because it relies heavily on recursion and slicing, some attempts have been made to improve speed, but a different approach is required for linear complexity (currently at least quadratic complexity is exhibited with document size).