7 years of txt2tags

Seems like yesterday when we made five… But now we’re seven!

7 years!

To celebrate this very special date (it’s real hard to keep a spare-time one-man project like txt2tags for that long), there’s a new 2.5 version out there!

It’s not one. Not even two. But three new targets!

• Wikipedia
• Google Code Wiki
• DokuWiki

Maybe you’ll write an article on Wikipedia, maybe you’ll update your Google Code project or maybe you’ll edit some DokuWiki page. In any case, txt2tags is your friend!

Keep using the same **marks** //you// __already__ ``know`` and let txt2tags do the dirty job of converting them to those new targets. The new codes for the -t option are wiki, gwiki and doku. Enjoy!

Talking about marks, have you ever needed to strikeout something? Now you can! Txt2tags 2.5 brings a new mark: --strike--. Simple!

There’s also a new PHP interface, better UTF-8 support, local links for LaTeX, new tools and more!

Check out the new guide: How to add a new target to txt2tags. I guess the name is self-describing, right? How about to get involved to the project, adding a new target?

Talking about collaboration, this release was sponsored by a generous donation from Dmitri Popov, who runs the No Thick Manuals site and have already helped lots of open source projects. Thank you Dmitri!

What now? Try the new version (online) and download it.

New version 2.4 released

Day 24, version 2.4. Got it? :)

Take all the dust and spiders out of your current txt2tags installation and upgrade to the fresh new stylish Christmas release.

Tons of bug fixes, new mark to comment multiple lines, more than one CSS per HTML file and user-defined .sty files for LaTeX are some of the news. Read them all.

Example of the new features:

My Test File
John Doe
Dec/2006

% Multiple CSS files are now supported
% They're applied on the same order you specify them
%
%!style(html): site.css
%!style(html): ie-gotchas.css
%!style(html): xmas-theme.css

% Now you can use your own LaTeX goodness
%
%!style(tex): ~/.mylatexrules.sty
%!style(tex): tex/mystyles/MathSettings.sty

Hello World

%%%
This is a commented block.
Three percentages to open, three more to close.
These lines won't appear on the converted file, they're commented.
%%%

Goodbye World

Yes, we’re growing!
No, we’re not bloat!

Minor version 2.3.2 released

Summary: New commented block mark and several bug fixes.

This release introduces a new mark for commented blocks: %%%. The syntax is similar to the Verbatim and Raw blocks, using the same mark to open and close the block. Kudos to Leo Rosa for sending the patch!

    This is a paragraph.

    %%%
    This is a commented block.
    Remember that the %%% must be at the line
    beginning with no leading spaces.
    %%%

    Another paragraph.

The txt2tags test suite was extended from 120 to 144 tests! Those new checks revealed very catchy bugs and some strange behavior. Even fatal errors raised from uncommon markup on the source file.

Now everything is fine. Oh if I had implemented that test suite thing since the beginning…

Vanished Bugs

Removed useless <P></P> after Table followed by blank line

    $ echo -e "\n| Table\n" | txt2tags-2.3 -t html -H -o- -i-
    <TABLE CELLPADDING="4">
    <TR>
    <TD>Table</TD>
    </TR>
    </TABLE>

    <P></P>

    $ echo -e "\n| Table\n" | txt2tags-2.3.2 -t html -H -o- -i-
    <TABLE CELLPADDING="4">
    <TR>
    <TD>Table</TD>
    </TR>
    </TABLE>

Raw doesn’t close Quote anymore

    $ echo -e '\n\tQuote\n""" Raw' | txt2tags-2.3 -t html -H -o- -i-
            <BLOCKQUOTE>
            Quote
            </BLOCKQUOTE>
    Raw

    $ echo -e '\n\tQuote\n""" Raw' | txt2tags-2.3.2 -t html -H -o- -i-
            <BLOCKQUOTE>
            Quote
    Raw
            </BLOCKQUOTE>

Bugfix: Macro at line beginning now closes Quote

    $ echo -e "\n\tQuote\n%%date" | txt2tags-2.3 -t html -H -o- -i-
            <BLOCKQUOTE>
            Quote
            20060809
            </BLOCKQUOTE>

    $ echo -e "\n\tQuote\n%%date" | txt2tags-2.3.2 -t html -H -o- -i-
            <BLOCKQUOTE>
            Quote
            </BLOCKQUOTE>
    <P>
    20060809
    </P>

Bugfix: Verbatim and Raw areas are now mutually exclusive

    $ echo -e '\n```\n"""\nRaw in Verb\n"""\n```' | txt2tags-2.3 -t html -H -o- -i-
    <PRE>
    </PRE>
    Raw in Verb
    <PRE>
    </PRE>

    $ echo -e '\n```\n"""\nRaw in Verb\n"""\n```' | txt2tags-2.3.2 -t html -H -o- -i-
    <PRE>
      """
      Raw in Verb
      """
    </PRE>

Bugfix: Fatal error on macro after table

    $ echo -e "\n| x |\n%%date" | txt2tags-2.3 -t html -H -o- -i-
    Sorry! Txt2tags aborted by an unknown error.

    $ echo -e "\n| x |\n%%date" | txt2tags-2.3.2 -t html -H -o- -i-
    <TABLE CELLPADDING="4" BORDER="1">
    <TR>
    <TD>x</TD>
    </TR>
    </TABLE>

    <P>
    20060809
    </P>

Bugfix: Fatal error on table inside deflist

    $ echo -e "\n: | Table inside List Term" | txt2tags-2.3 -t html -H -o- -i-
    Sorry! Txt2tags aborted by an unknown error.

    $ echo -e "\n: | Table inside List Term" | txt2tags-2.3.2 -t html -H -o- -i-
    <DL>
    <DT>| Table inside List Term</DT><DD>
    </DL>

Bugfix: Fatal error on empty table

    $ echo -e "\n| |" | txt2tags-2.3 -t html -H -o- -i-
    Sorry! Txt2tags aborted by an unknown error.

    $ echo -e "\n| |" | txt2tags-2.3.2 -t html -H -o- -i-
    <TABLE CELLPADDING="4" BORDER="1">
    <TR>
    <TD></TD>
    </TR>
    </TABLE>

Get the new code at the download page, under the Minor Releases section.

Minor version 2.3.1 released

After more than a year of silence, there is a new txt2tags version out!

It’s a minor release, mostly related to the Style option (–style or %!style). Now you can specify two or more CSS files for an HTML/XHTML page, or modules for LaTeX. Example:

    txt2tags -t html --style main.css --style fancy.css site.t2t

The –css-inside option was also improved to support multiple files and now warns when the CSS file is not found.

    <!-- Included main.css -->
    <STYLE TYPE="text/css">
    ...
    </STYLE>

    <!-- CSS include failed for fancy.css -->

A very ancient bug was fixed. It was introduced on version 0.7 (from 2002!) and remained unnoticed until recently. The automatic adding of protocol (like http://) was not working for uppercased URLs.

    $ echo -e "\\nWWW.FOO.COM" | txt2tags-2.3 -o- -H -t html -
    <P>
    <A HREF="WWW.FOO.COM">WWW.FOO.COM</A>
    </P>

    $ echo -e "\\nWWW.FOO.COM" | txt2tags-2.3.1 -o- -H -t html -
    <P>
    <A HREF="http://WWW.FOO.COM">WWW.FOO.COM</A>
    </P>

Since nobody noticed the bug before, this fix is invisible :)

Get the new code at the download page, under the Minor Releases section.

New “Release Early” Policy

I’ve always waited until many new features and bug fixes were done to then release a new version of txt2tags. The more changes, the better.

But experience show me that preparing big releases is a time consuming task, and it takes even longer when the period between versions becomes large. Since the latest version 2.3 was released 13 months ago, you can imagine how scared I am :)

We need change and we need it fast, Joey said.

Starting today, besides de KISS Principle, the program will also follow the “Release Early, Release Often” Principle. Minor releases will now be part of the project.

And when I said now, I mean --now! See next post.