Robert Mustacchi

Really briefly on the stuff that we've made for it. So there is a... My main issue of ASCII Doc is that there is no kind of native... like Rust or JavaScript library for processing it, there is a JavaScript library which is transpiled from Ruby. And so kind of making changes or seeing how it works in another hood is kind of, is sometimes challenging.

Really briefly on the stuff that we've made for it. So there is a... My main issue of ASCII Doc is that there is no kind of native... like Rust or JavaScript library for processing it, there is a JavaScript library which is transpiled from Ruby. And so kind of making changes or seeing how it works in another hood is kind of, is sometimes challenging.

And then it kind of, there's a bunch of assumptions on the way that it works. Like it assumes that you're going to process a whole ICO document in one go, top to bottom, right? which makes sense if you're processing it locally. In my case, I kind of worked on a React render of ASCII doc.

And then it kind of, there's a bunch of assumptions on the way that it works. Like it assumes that you're going to process a whole ICO document in one go, top to bottom, right? which makes sense if you're processing it locally. In my case, I kind of worked on a React render of ASCII doc.

And essentially what I do is I take this ASCII doc tree and I work through it and I render kind of each part as kind of React components. If you're not doing that, you have to create a renderer where you're returning a string. So you want to render an image, you return a string, and you drop in.

And essentially what I do is I take this ASCII doc tree and I work through it and I render kind of each part as kind of React components. If you're not doing that, you have to create a renderer where you're returning a string. So you want to render an image, you return a string, and you drop in.

You're accessing the attributes, and you're swapping stuff in and out, which isn't ideal, especially if you want to do some more interactive things like our images. It gets complicated because we're using signed images that come from GCP. We want a little light box. There's some other kind of features where if you want any kind of interactivity, that model doesn't work.

You're accessing the attributes, and you're swapping stuff in and out, which isn't ideal, especially if you want to do some more interactive things like our images. It gets complicated because we're using signed images that come from GCP. We want a little light box. There's some other kind of features where if you want any kind of interactivity, that model doesn't work.

So we wrote a React renderer for that. But then you kind of, React doesn't run once, top to bottom, and you have issues. The big issue that I spent way too long on was every time you render a piece of content, with a footnote in it, it assumes that it's a new footnote.

So we wrote a React renderer for that. But then you kind of, React doesn't run once, top to bottom, and you have issues. The big issue that I spent way too long on was every time you render a piece of content, with a footnote in it, it assumes that it's a new footnote.

So every time it's re-rendering that piece of text with a footnote, your number of footnotes is increasing, increasing, increasing up on the page. So those things are kind of challenging. And we've found ways around them. And I think like I have a, each one of these versions is motivated by kind of a piece of functionality that we want.

So every time it's re-rendering that piece of text with a footnote, your number of footnotes is increasing, increasing, increasing up on the page. So those things are kind of challenging. And we've found ways around them. And I think like I have a, each one of these versions is motivated by kind of a piece of functionality that we want.

So one thing I've been playing with recently is creating this intermediary format for ASCII doc. So I take, I go through the tree, I process it, I turn it into like a JSON object that can be passed easily from the server to the client. And that means that you can kind of pre-process it on the server and then you're not shipping like these big

So one thing I've been playing with recently is creating this intermediary format for ASCII doc. So I take, I go through the tree, I process it, I turn it into like a JSON object that can be passed easily from the server to the client. And that means that you can kind of pre-process it on the server and then you're not shipping like these big

this like two megabyte, uh, client library just to handle it on the front end. Um, but, and, and, and the reason why that is important is let's say we're in the, we're in the, then the console. And then, and this is a big aspiration of Robert's is if we, if we want documentation that exists within the console, it doesn't feel justified to ship this big ASCII doc JS, um, library in the console.

this like two megabyte, uh, client library just to handle it on the front end. Um, but, and, and, and the reason why that is important is let's say we're in the, we're in the, then the console. And then, and this is a big aspiration of Robert's is if we, if we want documentation that exists within the console, it doesn't feel justified to ship this big ASCII doc JS, um, library in the console.

Cause that kind of is a bit bloated. Um, but I think, uh, kind of working on experiments so that we can have dynamic documentation. Maybe if you're kind of working on, uh,

Cause that kind of is a bit bloated. Um, but I think, uh, kind of working on experiments so that we can have dynamic documentation. Maybe if you're kind of working on, uh,

repairs and kind of swapping components then then we have that without needing to um do yeah kind of do all this stuff so yeah it's it's it's interesting um it's a it's a bit of a challenge at times but uh yeah the versatility is the kind of is the is is the the thing that's great and the thing that kind of trips me up sometimes

repairs and kind of swapping components then then we have that without needing to um do yeah kind of do all this stuff so yeah it's it's it's interesting um it's a it's a bit of a challenge at times but uh yeah the versatility is the kind of is the is is the the thing that's great and the thing that kind of trips me up sometimes