Separate parser library

[xxgreg]

I've been using the commonmark.js parser combined with react for rendering.

Since I am not using the html or xml renderer, it would be great to have a separate js file built which only contains the parser, node, and walker objects.

[nicojs]

+1. I am creating an HTML to markdown converter which should be 100% CommonMark compliant. I'm also only using the parser, node, and walker objects for now. EDIT: I'm just getting started but this is the github link: https://github.com/nicojs/html2commonmark

[jgm]

+++ Nico Jansen [Dec 01 15 00:58 ]:

+1. I am creating an HTML to markdown converter which should be 100% CommonMark compliant. I'm also only using the parser, node, and walker objects for now.

Note that the C implementation (jgm/cmark) already has a really carefully written commonmark renderer. It would not be difficult to port this over to commonmark.js, and then you could use that for your HTML to markdown converter.

[nicojs]

Note that the C implementation (jgm/cmark) already has a really carefully written commonmark renderer. It would not be difficult to port this over to commonmark.js, and then you could use that for your HTML to markdown converter.

I think you are referring to the cmark_renderer. I am not a hero when it comes to c programming, but this will certainly be very interesting. Indeed markdown rendering is something i need. Thanks for the advice!

[jgm]

+++ Nico Jansen [Dec 02 15 03:26 ]:

Note that the C implementation (jgm/cmark) already has a
really carefully written commonmark renderer. It would not
be difficult to port this over to commonmark.js, and then
you could use that for your HTML to markdown converter.

I think you are referring to the cmark_renderer. I am not a hero when it comes to c programming, but this will certainly be very interesting. Indeed markdown rendering is something i need. Thanks for the advice!

I'm referring to this: https://github.com/jgm/cmark/blob/master/src/commonmark.c

It uses some library code in https://github.com/jgm/cmark/blob/master/src/render.c

Since the js and C renderers both use a similar "walk" interface to walk the AST, it should be possible to do a fairly straightforward translation.

[rgbkrk]

Big fan of this, I'd love to be able to use the AST to handle TeX nodes similar to the other awesome @jgm project, pandoc. :smile:

[jgm]

+++ Kyle Kelley [Jan 05 16 14:14 ]:

Big fan of this, I'd love to be able to use the AST to handle TeX nodes similar to the other awesome [1]@jgm project, pandoc. :smile:

You can already get the AST from commonmark.js. The only rationale I see for a separate parser library is to have a smaller library to import, without the renderers.

[rgbkrk]

Ah, ok. I'm not worried about size too much since I'm working on an Electron app. Mostly need to know what to rely on for TeX.

[glenjamin]

One easy way to do this would be to have an official parser-only entrypoint

If you create a file in the root of the repo called parser-only.js

module.exports.version = '0.24.0'
module.exports.Parser = require('./blocks');

Then commonJS module bundlers will only pull these in when someone does require('commonmark/parser-only').