- renamed to `makedown`
- rewrote in python, since it is available out of the box on most POSIX and in GitHub actions
- Updated to `### [my-command]() Explanation of command` syntax, this way GitHub highlights the commands nicely
Love the makedown name, renaming..
As for a short name available in terminal, we can add alias m="makedown" as part of zsh completion script.
Both:
$ makedown deploy-to-production
and
$ m deploy-to-production --help will work
Aditionally we can generate html out of the, now `makedown.md`, right in the tool:
$ makedown --html makedown.html
or
$ m --pdf makedown.pdf
For one of my projects, I tried something similar where I had code blocks in README.md like:
Usage
-----
`pip install bar` and import `foo`:
```python
import foo from bar
```
Run `foo.alice` with default arguments:
```python
foo.alice()
```
Run `foo.bob` while specifying `baz`:
```python
foo.bob(baz=0)
```
It’s great to see more tools taking advantage of the markdown syntax.
I’m the creator of Mask[0], a very similar tool built with Rust. I was originally inspired by Maid[1], which is an older take on this idea built with Node and no longer maintained I believe.
I see this is based on Node as well, and I appreciate that it currently has zero dependencies. Nice work!
It'll be nice if you could make it level 2 headers. Reason: if we want to make it html to display as a webpage, we won't end up with multiple H1s, and we can have a H1 for like the name of the app or something.
Does it support dependency handling between targets, and efficient partial remake of only the changed subtree of the dependency graph? Because what many people miss about make is the support for this, and think it is a way to make "commands" for single level recipies, and auto-complete their names in the shell. A simple shell script would be a trivial solution for that already.
Make does:
- topological sorting based ordering of the dependency tree
- skipping of already up to date targets
- supports parallel execution of independent dependency subtrees
The webpage is totally unclear on this, and to me it looks like it only allows for a named entrypoint to some script snippets.
I'm a literal programming fan though, and this is a nice start, but i recommend clarifying the docs on this.
I do something like this with https://speedrun.cc except it runs in the browser on top of your markdown in GitHub. This lets you prompt for inputs and run JavaScript and use a toolbar to context switch. For command lines it copies the command to the clipboard so you can run it.
This reminds me a bit of org-babel’s support for running blocks in any language.
I like the idea and the execution. This bit though:
> makedown.sh
> npm install -g ...
> #!/usr/bin/env python
Gives me a bit of whiplash. I get wanting to use npm to install, since 1) lots of people have it installed and 2) it’s reasonably cross-platform and it seems like makedown is as well.
I don’t see a reason for it to be named makedown.sh instead of just makedown, though. Make itself doesn’t depend on sh to my knowledge, and you could have a makedown file with no shell build rules at all.
Really like the simplicity of the project (this is a compliment, the root is not overwhelming with files). Nice that this tool uses only system libraries. Way easier to distribute a single file with leverages already installed languages.
For myself, I just make a directory `workflows` and put all my scripts in it, and organise related scripts into subdirectories, so that I can use tree and filesystem tools to check what subcommands are available.
That's an interesting idea you had, it makes me think of a mix between a jupyter notebook and a makefile, sort of, based on md files. I like the concept, but I need to test it to see if it fits my needs. Just a question about python and zsh, do they need to be pre-installed in your OS and accessible from PATH, that's it ?
published 0.3 version
pnpm install -g @tzador/x.md
- better --help messages with or without command
- ## level 2 headers are used
- the temp file is created in current folder, like that importing npm modules from current project works
When --help is provided, the help text from x.md is printed.
Otherwise all the command line parameters are passed to the actual script that implements the command.
- renamed to `makedown` - rewrote in python, since it is available out of the box on most POSIX and in GitHub actions - Updated to `### [my-command]() Explanation of command` syntax, this way GitHub highlights the commands nicely
Thank you for all the feedback
X is kinda overloaded. Maybe "makedown"? Or something?
I just do mine in bash (make.sh) and it runs scripts from make.d/ which are in whatever (python, js bash, PHP)
Makedown is a good name. +1 vote from me (in case it counts)
Love the makedown name, renaming.. As for a short name available in terminal, we can add alias m="makedown" as part of zsh completion script. Both: $ makedown deploy-to-production and $ m deploy-to-production --help will work
Aditionally we can generate html out of the, now `makedown.md`, right in the tool: $ makedown --html makedown.html or $ m --pdf makedown.pdf
Remember to change it in the readme as well
Some ideas:
- can capture output and be updated & displayed in the markdown doc.
- persistent kernels
This is pretty cool.
For one of my projects, I tried something similar where I had code blocks in README.md like:
And a Makefile like: So you could run all those README.md code blocks with:Aaages ago a I built a little tool to provide a TUI for NPM scripts (https://www.npmjs.com/package/lana-cli)
If you have a README with a list of build tasks, it'll pull its content and give nicer names to whatever is placed in package.json scripts field.
(I'm using comments for that which feels clunky)
I don't update it often, but I still use it almost every day.
Looks nice!
I used XC for a bit, which does a similar thing, but have since reverted to make. The self-documenting nature of these tools can be very useful.
https://xcfile.dev/
It’s great to see more tools taking advantage of the markdown syntax.
I’m the creator of Mask[0], a very similar tool built with Rust. I was originally inspired by Maid[1], which is an older take on this idea built with Node and no longer maintained I believe.
I see this is based on Node as well, and I appreciate that it currently has zero dependencies. Nice work!
[0]: https://github.com/jacobdeichert/mask
[1]: https://github.com/egoist/maid
Well, which markdown syntax, which specification?
It'll be nice if you could make it level 2 headers. Reason: if we want to make it html to display as a webpage, we won't end up with multiple H1s, and we can have a H1 for like the name of the app or something.
Great suggestion. On it
Does it support dependency handling between targets, and efficient partial remake of only the changed subtree of the dependency graph? Because what many people miss about make is the support for this, and think it is a way to make "commands" for single level recipies, and auto-complete their names in the shell. A simple shell script would be a trivial solution for that already.
Make does:
- topological sorting based ordering of the dependency tree
- skipping of already up to date targets
- supports parallel execution of independent dependency subtrees
The webpage is totally unclear on this, and to me it looks like it only allows for a named entrypoint to some script snippets.
I'm a literal programming fan though, and this is a nice start, but i recommend clarifying the docs on this.
I do something like this with https://speedrun.cc except it runs in the browser on top of your markdown in GitHub. This lets you prompt for inputs and run JavaScript and use a toolbar to context switch. For command lines it copies the command to the clipboard so you can run it.
This reminds me a bit of org-babel’s support for running blocks in any language.
I like the idea and the execution. This bit though:
> makedown.sh
> npm install -g ...
> #!/usr/bin/env python
Gives me a bit of whiplash. I get wanting to use npm to install, since 1) lots of people have it installed and 2) it’s reasonably cross-platform and it seems like makedown is as well.
I don’t see a reason for it to be named makedown.sh instead of just makedown, though. Make itself doesn’t depend on sh to my knowledge, and you could have a makedown file with no shell build rules at all.
> Make itself doesn’t depend on sh to my knowledge
Recipes are run through sh by default, though it can be overridden to anything using the SHELL variable (including, say, python).
This is an interesting approach. These days I have completely switched to just[0] tool for similar use case.
[0]: https://github.com/casey/just
Really like the simplicity of the project (this is a compliment, the root is not overwhelming with files). Nice that this tool uses only system libraries. Way easier to distribute a single file with leverages already installed languages.
Thanks for sharing!
For myself, I just make a directory `workflows` and put all my scripts in it, and organise related scripts into subdirectories, so that I can use tree and filesystem tools to check what subcommands are available.
That's an interesting idea you had, it makes me think of a mix between a jupyter notebook and a makefile, sort of, based on md files. I like the concept, but I need to test it to see if it fits my needs. Just a question about python and zsh, do they need to be pre-installed in your OS and accessible from PATH, that's it ?
ansible for markdown?
published 0.3 version pnpm install -g @tzador/x.md
- better --help messages with or without command - ## level 2 headers are used - the temp file is created in current folder, like that importing npm modules from current project works
Plus points for being a readable format that can be displayed great on HTML or PDF.
At the same time easy to edit and easy to enhance with different build languages as needed.
Nice idea! Can I reuse variables that I have defined in e.g. a JS code block in another ZSH code block and vice versa?
Just change your README to README.html, and put your build script there.
>One can type `--help` after `x my-command` to print out the help associated with that command.
I assume that there is no support for the scripts having their own command-line arguments? Or how do you disambiguate?
Anyway, this seems like an interesting demo, but it's hard to imagine the use case.
When --help is provided, the help text from x.md is printed. Otherwise all the command line parameters are passed to the actual script that implements the command.
Hey dude: This is project looks promising. I would like to check out.
404
should be working now https://github.com/tzador/x.md