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https://github.com/kdheepak/panvimdoc

Write documentation in pandoc markdown. Generate documentation in vimdoc.
https://github.com/kdheepak/panvimdoc

documentation markdown neovim pandoc vim

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Write documentation in pandoc markdown. Generate documentation in vimdoc.

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README 

        
# panvimdoc



[![Docs](https://img.shields.io/badge/docs-dev-blue.svg)](https://kdheepak.com/panvimdoc/)

[![Build](https://github.com/kdheepak/panvimdoc/actions/workflows/test.yml/badge.svg?branch=main)](https://github.com/kdheepak/panvimdoc/actions/workflows/test.yml?query=branch%3Amain)

[![Sponsor](https://img.shields.io/badge/GitHub_Sponsor-%E2%9D%A4-blue)](https://github.com/sponsors/kdheepak)

[![Donate](https://img.shields.io/badge/Donate_Via_Stripe-%E2%9D%A4-blue)](https://donate.stripe.com/8wM9E7bBO9ZsbGUdQR)



Write documentation in [pandoc markdown](https://pandoc.org/MANUAL.html). Generate documentation in

vimdoc.



image



::: center This software is released under a MIT License. :::



# TLDR



1. Add the following to `./.github/workflows/panvimdoc.yml`:



   ```yaml

   name: panvimdoc

   

   on:

     push:

       branches: [main]

       paths:

         - README.md 

         - .github/workflows/panvimdoc.yml 

   

   permissions:

     contents: write

   

   jobs:

     docs:

       runs-on: ubuntu-latest

       name: pandoc to vimdoc

       steps:

         - uses: actions/checkout@v2

         - uses: kdheepak/panvimdoc@main

           with:

             vimdoc: ${{ github.event.repository.name }}

         - uses: stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action@v4

           with:

             commit_message: "Auto generate docs"

             branch: ${{ github.head_ref }}

   ```



2. `README.md` gets converted to `./doc/${{ github.event.repository.name }}.txt` and auto-committed to the repo.



_Optional_: Add the following to `./.github/dependabot.yml` to auto update your github action dependencies:



```

version: 2

updates:

  # Maintain dependencies for GitHub Actions

  - package-ecosystem: github-actions

    directory: "/"

    schedule:

      interval: weekly

    open-pull-requests-limit: 10

```



# Usage



### Generating vimdoc using GitHub Actions



Create an empty doc file:



```bash

touch doc/.gitkeep

git commit -am "Add empty doc folder"

git push

```



Then add the following to `./.github/workflows/panvimdoc.yml`:



```yaml

name: panvimdoc



on: [push]



jobs:

  docs:

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    name: pandoc to vimdoc

    steps:

      - uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: panvimdoc

        uses: kdheepak/panvimdoc@main

        with:

          vimdoc: __VIMDOC_PROJECT_NAME_HERE__ # Output vimdoc project name (required)

          # The following are all optional

          pandoc: "README.md" # Input pandoc file

          version: "NVIM v0.8.0" # Vim version number

          toc: true # Table of contents

          description: "" # Project description used in title (if empty, uses neovim version and current date)

          titledatepattern: "%Y %B %d" # Pattern for the date that used in the title

          demojify: false # Strip emojis from the vimdoc

          dedupsubheadings: true # Add heading to subheading anchor links to ensure that subheadings are unique

          treesitter: true # Use treesitter for highlighting codeblocks

          ignorerawblocks: true # Ignore raw html blocks in markdown when converting to vimdoc

          docmapping: false # Use h4 headers as mapping docs

          docmappingprojectname: true # Use project name in tag when writing mapping docs

          shiftheadinglevelby: 0 # Shift heading levels by specified number

          incrementheadinglevelby: 0 # Increment heading levels by specified number

```



The only required thing for you to do is to choose a `__VIMDOC_PROJECT_NAME_HERE__` appropriately. This is

usually the name of the plugin or the documentation file without the `.txt` extension. For example,

the following:



```yaml

- name: panvimdoc

  uses: kdheepak/panvimdoc@main

  with:

    vimdoc: panvimdoc

```



will output a file `doc/panvimdoc.txt` and the vim help tag for it will be `panvimdoc` using the

`main` branch of the repository.



All the other options are optional.



It is recommended to pin to an exact version so you can be confident that no surprises occur for you

or your users. See  for which version to use.

Once you pick a version, you can pin it like so:



```yaml

- name: panvimdoc

  uses: kdheepak/[email protected]

```



For an example of how this is used, see one of the following workflows:



- [kdheepak/panvimdoc](./.github/workflows/panvimdoc.yml): [doc/panvimdoc.txt](./doc/panvimdoc.txt)

- [kdheepak/tabline.nvim](https://github.com/kdheepak/tabline.nvim/blob/main/.github/workflows/ci.yml):

  [doc/tabline.txt](https://github.com/kdheepak/tabline.nvim/blob/main/doc/tabline.txt)



Or see any of the packages here that depend on this action:



### Generating HTML using GitHub Actions



If you are interested in making your vim plugin documentation available as a HTML page, check out

[.github/workflows/docs.yml](./.github/workflows/docs.yml) file. 



You can find the Markdown file you are reading right now converted to HTML here: https://kdheepak.com/panvimdoc/



Here's an example:



```yml

name: docs



on:

  push:

    branches: main



permissions:

  contents: write



jobs:

  publish-gh-page:

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:

      - name: checkout code

        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: pandoc markdown to html

        uses: docker://pandoc/latex:3.1

        with:

          args: >-

            --katex --from markdown+tex_math_single_backslash --to html5+smart

            --template="./scripts/template.html5" --css="/panvimdoc/css/theme.css"

            --css="/panvimdoc/css/skylighting-solarized-theme.css" --toc --wrap=none --metadata

            title="panvimdoc" doc/panvimdoc.md --lua-filter=scripts/include-files.lua

            --lua-filter=scripts/skip-blocks.lua -t html -o public/index.html

      - name: deploy to GitHub pages

        uses: JamesIves/github-pages-deploy-action@v4

        with:

          branch: gh-pages

          folder: public

```



### Using pre-commit locally



[pre-commit](https://pre-commit.com/) lets you easily install and manage pre-commit hooks locally.



Two hooks are available, differing only in the way dependencies are handled:



- `panvimdoc-docker`: Requires a running Docker engine on your host. All other dependencies will be loaded inside the container.

- `panvimdoc`: Runs in your local environment, so you have to make sure all dependencies of panvimdoc are installed

    (i.e., `pandoc v3.0.0` or greater)



To use a hook, first install pre-commit. Then, add the following to your `.pre-commit-config.yaml` (here `panvimdoc-docker` is used):



```yaml

- repo: 'https://github.com/kdheepak/panvimdoc'

  rev: v4.0.1

  hooks:

    - id: panvimdoc-docker

      args:

        - '--project-name'

        - 

```



You can specify additional arguments to `panvimdoc.sh` using `args`. See the section below (or run `./panvimdoc.sh`) for the full list of arguments.



To change the input file, modify the `files` field of the hook and supply the corresponding `--input-file` to `args`. In the example below, the hook will be triggered if any `.md` file changes:



```yaml

- repo: 'https://github.com/kdheepak/panvimdoc'

  rev: v4.0.1

  hooks:

    - id: panvimdoc-docker

      files: ^.*\.md$

      args:

        - '--project-name'

        - 

        - '--input-file'

        - 

```



### Using it manually locally



The `./panvimdoc.sh` script runs `pandoc` along with all the filters and custom output writer.



```bash

$ ./panvimdoc.sh

Usage: ./panvimdoc.sh --project-name PROJECT_NAME --input-file INPUT_FILE --vim-version VIM_VERSION --toc TOC --description DESCRIPTION --dedup-subheadings DEDUP_SUBHEADINGS --treesitter TREESITTER



Arguments:

  --project-name: the name of the project

  --input-file: the input markdown file

  --vim-version: the version of Vim that the project is compatible with

  --toc: 'true' if the output should include a table of contents, 'false' otherwise

  --description: a project description used in title (if empty, uses neovim version and current date)

  --dedup-subheadings: 'true' if duplicate subheadings should be removed, 'false' otherwise

  --title-date-pattern: '%Y %B %d' a pattern for the date that used in the title

  --demojify: 'false' if emojis should not be removed, 'true' otherwise

  --treesitter: 'true' if the project uses Tree-sitter syntax highlighting, 'false' otherwise

  --ignore-rawblocks: 'true' if the project should ignore HTML raw blocks, 'false' otherwise

  --doc-mapping: 'true' if the project should use h4 headers as mapping docs, 'false' otherwise

  --doc-mapping-project-name: 'true' if tags generated for mapping docs contain project name, 'false' otherwise

  --shift-heading-level-by: 0 if you don't want to shift heading levels , n otherwise

  --increment-heading-level-by: 0 if don't want to increment the starting heading number, n otherwise

```



You will need `pandoc v3.0.0` or greater for this script to work.



# Motivation



Writing user-friendly documentation is important for every successful software project. This is

particularly true when writing documentation for users in the world of vim plugins.



The process of writing and maintaining this documentation can often be a cumbersome, time-consuming

task. This project is aims to make that process a little bit easier by allowing anyone to write

documentation in markdown (or any format Pandoc supports) and converting it to vimdoc automatically.

This way, plugin authors will have to write documentation just once (for example, as part of the

README of the project), and the vim documentation can be autogenerated.



## Rationale



1. **Simplicity**: Writing in Markdown is often more intuitive for developers. By converting from

   Markdown to vimdoc, authors can maintain the simplicity of Markdown while adhering to the vimdoc

   standards.

2. **Unified Documentation**: Plugin authors can write their documentation just once (such as in the

   project's README) and automatically generate vim documentation, ensuring consistency and saving

   time.

3. **Preserving Vim Features**: Vimdoc isn’t just plain text; it supports syntax highlighting, tags,

   links, and careful formatting using whitespace. It's essential to preserve these features when

   converting to ensure the quality and usefulness of the documentation. See

    or

   [`@nanotree`'s project](https://github.com/nanotee/vimdoc-notes) for more information.

4. **Leveraging Pandoc**: Unlike existing solutions, this project leverages Pandoc's wide range of

   features, including support for multiple Markdown flavors and easy-to-write custom filters in

   Lua.

5. **Interoperability**: The choice of Pandoc allows for enhanced flexibility, making it easier to

   extend functionality or even adapt the converter for other documentation formats in the future.



## Background



Writing documentation in Markdown and converting it to vimdoc is not a novel idea.



For example, [ibhagwan/ts-vimdoc.nvim](https://github.com/ibhagwan/ts-vimdoc.nvim) is an

implementation a neovim treesitter based markdown to vimdoc converter that works fairly well. There

are no dependencies except for the Markdown treesitter parser. It is neovim only but you can use

this on github actions even for a vim plugin documentation.



There's also [wincent/docvim](https://github.com/wincent/docvim) which is written in Haskell.

Finally, there's [FooSoft/md2vim](https://github.com/FooSoft/md2vim) which is written in Go.



However, none of these projects use Pandoc. Pandoc Markdown supports a wide number of features: See

 for more information. Most importantly, it supports a range of

Markdown formats and flavors. And, Pandoc has filters and a custom output writer that can be

configured in lua. Pandoc filters can extend the capability of Pandoc with minimal lua scripting,

and these are very easy to write and maintain too.



That means, with this project, you can write your Vim documentation in Markdown, RestructuredText,

AsciiDoc, etc and convert it to VimDoc, PDF, Word, HTML etc.



# Goals



By offering a specification and reference implementation for converting Pandoc Markdown to vimdoc,

this project aims to reduce friction in the documentation process for vim plugin authors.



Here are the specific goals that guide this project:



- **Readability**: The Markdown files must render correctly when presented as README files on

  platforms like GitHub, GitLab, or SourceHut.

- **Web-Friendly HTML**: If converted to HTML using Pandoc, the Markdown files must be web-friendly

  and render appropriately.

- **VimDoc Features**: The generated vim documentation must support essential features like links

  and tags.

- **Aesthetically Pleasing**: The vim documentation must not only be functional but also visually

  pleasing in both vim and plain text files. This includes the appropriate use of columns and

  spacing.

- **Guidelines**: While the format of built-in Vim documentation is a valuable reference, it is used

  as a guideline rather than a specification.



# Features



This project offers a comprehensive suite of features designed to streamline the conversion process

from Markdown to vimdoc:



- Automatically generates titles for vim documentation.

- Creates a table of contents to enhance navigation within the document.

- Automatically handles the generation of links and tags.

- Maintains markdown syntax for tables, ensuring proper rendering.

- Allows for manual control through raw vimdoc syntax where necessary.

- Offers the ability to include multiple Markdown files, providing flexibility in documentation

  structure.



# Specification



The specification is described in [panvimdoc.md](./doc/panvimdoc.md) along with examples. The

generated output is in [panvimdoc.txt](./doc/panvimdoc.txt). The reference implementation of the

Pandoc lua filter is in [panvimdoc.lua](./scripts/panvimdoc.lua). See [panvimdoc.sh](./panvimdoc.sh)

for how to use this script, or check the [Usage](#usage) section.



If you would like to contribute to the specification, or if you have feature requests or opinions,

please feel free to comment here: .



# References



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# Donate



If you've found this project helpful, you can show your appreciation by sponsoring me on [GitHub Sponsors](https://github.com/sponsors/kdheepak/) or [donating via Strip](https://donate.stripe.com/8wM9E7bBO9ZsbGUdQR).