Request project membership and creation of a To-PDF subclass repository

[tbrowder]

I have discussed this with David Warring (zef:dwarring), the author of most of the very usable Raku PDF modules adhering to the approved, official ISO specification for PDF. Following is a general statement of intent to work on the official code line
(WHEREVER THAT IS OFFICIALLY ESTABLISHED).

DRAFT STATEMENT FOR HIS APPROVAL: He agrees that the OFFICIAL repository is the proper place for the repository for the Raku interface with PDF handling modules and the home of subroutine 'rakudoc2pdf' for rendering 'RakuAST::RakuDoc' to PDF.

Considering the draft statement above, and subject to change, here is MY initial proposed plan for development in that repository:

1. Use the current RakuAST::RakuDoc::To::Text code being developed by Will Coleda (#raku [Coke]) as the basis for the PDF development where applicable.
2. Follow the published version 2 RakuAST docs as shown on the https://docs.raku.org website starting at https://docs.raku.org/type/RakuAST/Doc/Block and ending at https://docs.raku.org/type/RakuAST/Doc/Paragraph.
3. Provide a usable 'rakudoc2pdf' version as soon as feasible in order for users to evaluate it for their own projects. (I will use it for own my PDF projects, including published releases, with appropriate caveats to warn of deprecated versions and any user requirement for the upgrade.)

[tbrowder]

In my opinion, the proper official repository location is problematic since the code is involved in definition, documentation, extraction, parsing, and creation of products and could belong in either of the active code lines in Rakudo https://githib.com/Rakudo or Raku https://github.com/Raku.

The RSC probably ought to make that call.

[finanalyst]

@tbrowder I am a little confused by your comment that @coke is writing RakuAST::RakuDoc::To::Text.
Here's my understanding of the current situation:

• RakuDoc v1 (aka POD6) was updated to RakuDoc v2 by Damian Conway, Elizabeth Mattijsen and myself. The new specification was formally adopted by the RSC. The Rakudoc version can be found at the githup repo Raku/RakuDoc-GAMMA. You can find a slightly out of date version in HTML here.
• This distribution aims to cover the whole of the the RakuDoc v2 specification. Actually it already does.
• @lizmat has RakuDoc::To::Text class within the RakuAst development tree of Rakudo. However, it is mostly a port of the Text version available currently with Rakudo. It does not support a number of RakuDoc v2 components.
• I have written RakuAST::RakuDoc, which is in this distribution. The core renderer produces Text similar to @lizmat's. You can find a wrapper to produce Text in RakuDoc::To::Genericunder lib/
• I do not think @coke has written another module.

[finanalyst]

I've altered the README. It was incorrect.
FYI All the documentation is here

[coke]

I'm not writing any module - I might have been part of a bug fix, but that's it.

[tbrowder]

On Sun, Sep 22, 2024 at 17:54 Will Coleda ***@***.***> wrote: I'm not writing any module - I might have been part of a bug fix, but that's it.

I'm sorry to confuse, you, his code "broke the code" for me for pod nodes, and it has opened my eyes about RakuAST and pod2.

…

-Tom

[finanalyst]

@coke thank you. @tbrowder Not a problem. We live in a world with so much information, it's easy to reach the wrong conclusions.

@tbrowder My proposal is that we make this distribution of a RakuDoc v2 renderer the de facto standard, with PDF, MarkDown, HTML, text and epub outputs as included by default. I have the MarkDown, two types of HTML, and text covered, and I know how to do the epub.
A standard pdf output is way beyond my knowledge at the moment, and having another pair of eyes on my code would be very much appreciated.

[tbrowder]

That is what I plan to do, and have started working on that in my fork of your rakuast-rakudoc-render, 'pdf' branch. David Warring is at hand for PDF advice as he keeps improving the actual Raku PDF rendering to follow the PDF ISO standard.

My first effort is to use my mod to Will's code to determine exactly all the information in the sample rakudoc files of immediate interest to me for PDF use and apply that to create:

a aimple PDF slide deck with configurable slides
    (Letter media, Landscape for direct use on video
     monitors and projectors)
a simple PDF business letter with configurable letterhead
    (Letter or A4 media)

I hope those two items can help morivate interest in practical Raku projects.