34 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
34 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
# MkDocs semiliterate Plugin
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This plugin for [MkDocs](http://mkdocs.org) is an extension of Allison Thackston's excellent [mkdocs-simple-plugin](https://athackst.github.io/mkdocs-simple-plugin). It allows you to include content from one file into another (via `{! ... !}` syntax), using exactly the same extraction specification that the `simple` plugin already uses for identifying documentation in source files.
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<!-- repo: --><!-- site: The current version of mkdocs-semiliterate is {! setup.cfg { extract: {start: name}, terminate: '(\d*\.\d*\.\d*)'} !}. -->
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## Rationale
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Time and trends have not validated Knuth's original vision of "literate programming" as a mainstream practice. Nevertheless, there remain significant advantages to incorporating all documentation, including user-guide-style narrative, into the source code for a project. These advantages include ease of maintenance and synchronization of code and documentation, and opportunities to make the ensemble of your code and documentation more DRY. Thus, it's worth using a "semiliterate" programming style, in which
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* code is arranged as dictated by best software engineering practices
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* documentation is co-located in the same files next to the implementing code
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* and tools are provided for extracting and assembling that documentation into readable form.
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*[DRY]: Don't Repeat Yourself -- a coding philosophy of creating a single authoritative location for each piece of information.
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The `simple` plugin goes a long way toward creating a semiliterate programming environment. However, in creating narrative documentation, it's very useful to be able to quote or incorporate content --- whether that be documentation blocks or code examples or code that itself serves as documentation to avoid repeating information --- from one file into another. To satisfy that need, this `semiliterate` plugin extends (i.e, literally inherits from) the `simple` plugin and adds a syntax for such inclusion.
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With a few other small ease-of-use tweaks (documented in the <!-- repo: -->[Usage](http://studioinfinity.org/semiliterate/mkdocs_semiliterate/plugin)<!-- site:[Usage](mkdocs_semiliterate/plugin.md) --> section),
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this extended plugin aims to produce a lightweight but comprehensive semiliterate programming environment. <!-- repo: -->The [documentation site](http://studioinfinity.org/semiliterate)<!-- site:This documentation site --> is, of course, produced by MkDocs using the semiliterate plugin.
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## Installation
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The mkdocs-semiliterate package which provides the `semiliterate` plugin for MkDocs is available via PyPI:
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`python3 -m pip install mkdocs-semiliterate`
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or of course if your `pip` is already set up to use a Python 3.5 (or later) installation, just
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`pip install mkdocs-semiliterate`
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## License
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This software is licensed under [Apache 2.0](LICENSE).
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