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MdBook – A command line tool to create books with Markdown

rust-lang.github.io

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Re: MdBook – A command line tool to create books with Markdown

#101

Post by jtbayly »

msravi wrote: post #63

So far, in this thread (in no particular order): - [Jekyll]( https://jekyllrb.com/ ) - [Hugo Book]( https://github.com/alex-shpak/hugo-book ) - [MdBook]( https://rust-lang.github.io/mdBook/ ) - [MkDocs]( https://www.mkdocs.org/ ) - [MkDocs Material]( https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/ ) - [GitBook]( https://www.gitbook.com/ ) - [Antora]( https://antora.org/ ) - [Docusaurus]( https://docusaurus.io/ ) - [Next…

I'd like to see a feature comparison table/site for these tools?

Which ones have...?

  - search built in
  - PDF output
  - ePub output
  - more than one theme
  - lots of other stuff

Re: MdBook – A command line tool to create books with Markdown

#102

Post by LeonB »

wumms wrote: post #38
LeonB wrote: post #25

I used to use gitbook to generate til.secretGeek.net but it got slower and slower over time, would take 45 mins to build the site… and then the parts I was using were either deprecated or made “premium” - something happened. The “enshittification” set in, basically. If there’s some nice free thing you use that’s too good to be true… wait a few years it will go to muck. I bit the bullet and wrote my own very minimal s…

> spruik spruik - in British English (ˈspruːɪkˈ) [Australian archaic, slang]: to speak in public (used esp of a showman or salesman) - in American English (ˈspruːkˈ) [Australian slang]: to make or give a speech, esp. extensively or elaborately; spiel; orate https://www.collinsdictionary.com/jp/dictionary/english/spru...

Well done. And I am Australian.

Re: MdBook – A command line tool to create books with Markdown

#103

Post by BanazirGalbasi »

still_grokking wrote: post #82

Tangent question: What are currently viable Markdown alternatives? Imho Markdown is a overall terrible and (especially regarding technical writing!) very limited format. But nothing else seems popular. Why actually? Are there any realistic alternatives? Thanks for some hints!

> But nothing else seems popular. Why actually?

I think markdown's popularity comes from its simplicity. For things like bulleted lists, especially nested ones, I can just type an asterisk and keep going. The raw input is still very readable (for the most part) and adding formatting is quick and easy. For anything basic - such as chat systems, social media posts/comments, or quick note systems - I don't think anything more is needed.

Something like reStructuredText (.rst) is a similar alternative, but I think that if you're irritated by the limits of Markdown then rST isn't going to be any better. If you really want good formatting options, then LaTeX is the best I can think of at the moment.

Re: MdBook – A command line tool to create books with Markdown

#104

Post by zoogeny »

still_grokking wrote: post #82

Tangent question: What are currently viable Markdown alternatives? Imho Markdown is a overall terrible and (especially regarding technical writing!) very limited format. But nothing else seems popular. Why actually? Are there any realistic alternatives? Thanks for some hints!

In all seriousness, HTML started out as a markup language for documents. That is why tags like

for paragraphs and for boldness etc. are so prominent.

If you aren't trying to build a SPA or something like that and you just want to mark up some text for formatted output ... HTML is kinda made for that task.

That being said, I tend to stick with Markdown since I find angle bracket tags to be noisy and distracting when I view documents in plain text.

Re: MdBook – A command line tool to create books with Markdown

#105

Post by singhrac »

codetrotter wrote: post #55
toastal wrote: post #44

IIRC, this platform uses CDN-hosted libraries rather than bundling/vendoring. As a result, users are exposed to not just outages of the CDNs but also the data collected by these servers. That’s a bummer. …but it’s not the only bummer. The usage of Highlight.js + MathJax on the front-end is horribly wasteful. Why? It demands all clients parse & render the syntax/LaTeX which is not only taxing on CPUs and batteries, bu…

Looks like MathJax is hosted on a CDN. Everything else, from css to other js files, is hosted alongside the HTML files. Seems a bit strange. I wonder why they chose to use a CDN for that one js file. Perhaps because MathJax support is optional? https://rust-lang.github.io/mdBook/format/mathjax.html Even though the MathJax js file will in turn probably load more things hosted on the CDN. I don’t understand why they ar…

Maybe it’s because MathJax loading slow would delay rendering, and using a CDN-hosted MathJax increases the chance the content is cached?

That’s usually why people use CDNs. It’s more important for MathJax than, say, interactive scripts, since it can cause rendering.

I don’t think MathJax loads any additional files (I don’t remember seeing any additional network requests).

Re: MdBook – A command line tool to create books with Markdown

#106

Post by skimdesk »

msravi wrote: post #63

So far, in this thread (in no particular order): - [Jekyll]( https://jekyllrb.com/ ) - [Hugo Book]( https://github.com/alex-shpak/hugo-book ) - [MdBook]( https://rust-lang.github.io/mdBook/ ) - [MkDocs]( https://www.mkdocs.org/ ) - [MkDocs Material]( https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/ ) - [GitBook]( https://www.gitbook.com/ ) - [Antora]( https://antora.org/ ) - [Docusaurus]( https://docusaurus.io/ ) - [Next…

Shameless plug for Doctave [0], which offers a solid way to combine markdown and OpenAPI specs into a documentation site.

It's a hosted SaaS, so it's technically not a static-site generator, but it's an alternative to the above.

[0]: https://www.doctave.com/

Re: MdBook – A command line tool to create books with Markdown

#107

Post by mr_o47 »

gbraad wrote: post #57
mr_o47 wrote: post #15

I have been using Mdbook for a while and its been great, I maintain a simple knowledge base for myself https://til-mraza007.vercel.app/ I love how simple it is

You might have to update the Bluetooth article; you do not stop bluetooth with 'enable' ;-)

Thank you for pointing out its a mistake on my end

Re: MdBook – A command line tool to create books with Markdown

#108

Post by gbraad »

mr_o47 wrote: post #107
gbraad wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might have to update the Bluetooth article; you do not stop bluetooth with 'enable' ;-)

Thank you for pointing out its a mistake on my end

these things happen; copy-paste and moved on...

Re: MdBook – A command line tool to create books with Markdown

#109

Post by pie_flavor »

still_grokking wrote: post #82

Tangent question: What are currently viable Markdown alternatives? Imho Markdown is a overall terrible and (especially regarding technical writing!) very limited format. But nothing else seems popular. Why actually? Are there any realistic alternatives? Thanks for some hints!

Markdown is a formalization of formatting conventions that people were using well before it was invented as a separate product. It was slightly different - the link syntax was novel, and asterisks usually meant bold instead of italics - but it was close enough that the allure of 'your reflexes still work' held. Nothing else is as popular as Markdown because it isn't actually Markdown that's popular, it's what preceded it.

Personally I'm happy for it because it'll finally stop programming languages from inventing their own domain-specific oddly-syntaxed subset of HTML; the way Rust uses it is something others have no reason not to copy. For your own technical writing, AsciiDoc works pretty well.

Re: MdBook – A command line tool to create books with Markdown

#110

Post by [deleted] »

still_grokking wrote: post #90
tpreetham wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

org-mode is a brilliant format. The limitation is that you would have to use Emacs or something which support .org files. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVtKhBrRV_ZkPnBtt_TD1Cs9P...

What else besides EMACS supports .org files? Form the alternatives I've seen so far it looks best. But EMACS? (I'm on Linux, but never liked EMACS or Vi(m)). The second best looking alternative seems AsciiDoc. It has some more tooling as I see it. But really like the .org syntax best so far. So any recommendations for tooling?

[deleted]
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