<div class=“section”> <p>Glyph is a Rapid Document Authoring Framework.</p> <p>With Glyph
, creating and maintaining any kind of document becomes as easy as… programming. Glyph
enables you to minimize text duplication, focus on content rather than presentation, manage references seamlessly and automate tedious tasks through a simple but effective macro language, specifically geared towards customization and extensibility.</p>
<div class="section">
<h3 id=“h_1” class=“toc”>Main Features</h3> <div class=“section”> <h4 id=“h_2” class=“toc”>Command Line Interface</h4> <p>Glyph is 100% command line. Its interface resambles <a href=“Git’sgit-scm.com/”>Git’s> for its simplicity and power (thanks to the <a href=“gligithub.com/davetron5000/gli”>gli> gem). Here are some example commands:</p> <ul>
<li><code>glyph init</code> — to initialize a new Glyph project in the current (empty) directory.</li> <li><code>glyph add introduction.textile</code> — to create a new file called <em>introduction.textile</em>.</li> <li><code>glyph compile</code> — to compile the current document into a single <span class="caps">HTML</span> file.</li> <li><code>glyph compile --auto</code> — to keep recompiling the current document every time a file is changed.</li> <li><code>glyph compile -f pdf</code> — to compile the current document into <span class="caps">HTML</span> and then transform it into <span class="caps">PDF</span>.</li> <li><code>glyph compile readme.glyph</code> — to compile a <em>readme.glyph</em> located in the current directory into a single <span class="caps">HTML</span> file.</li> <li><code>glyph outline -l 2</code> — Display the document outline, up to second-level headers.</li> <li><code>glyph stats</code> — Display project statistics.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h4 id=“h_3” class=“toc”>Minimalist Syntax</h4> <p>Glyph syntax rules can be explained using Glyph
itself:</p>
<div class="CodeRay"> <div class="code"><pre><span class="line-numbers"> <a href="#n1" name="n1">1</a></span>section[
<span class=“line-numbers”> <a href=“#n2” name=“n2”>2</a></span> @title[Something about Glyph] <span class=“line-numbers”> <a href=“#n3” name=“n3”>3</a></span> txt[ <span class=“line-numbers”> <a href=“#n4” name=“n4”>4</a></span>You can use Glyph
macros in conjunction <span class=“line-numbers”> <a href=“#n5” name=“n5”>5</a></span>with Textile or Markdown to <span class=“line-numbers”> <a href=“#n6” name=“n6”>6</a></span>produce HTML files effortlessly. <span class=“line-numbers”> <a href=“#n7” name=“n7”>7</a></span> ] <span class=“line-numbers”> <a href=“#n8” name=“n8”>8</a></span> p[Alternatively, you can just use em[Glyph itself] to generate HTML tags.] <span class=“line-numbers”> <a href=“#n9” name=“n9”>9</a></span> section[ <span class=“line-numbers”><strong><a href=“#n10” name=“n10”>10</a></strong></span> @title[What about PDFs?] <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n11” name=“n11”>11</a></span> @id <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n12” name=“n12”>12</a></span> p[ <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n13” name=“n13”>13</a></span>Once you have a single, well-formatted HTML <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n14” name=“n14”>14</a></span>file, converting it to PDF is <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n15” name=“n15”>15</a></span>extremely easy with a free 3rd-party <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n16” name=“n16”>16</a></span>renderer like => <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n17” name=“n17”>17</a></span>or =>. <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n18” name=“n18”>18</a></span> ] <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n19” name=“n19”>19</a></span> ]
<span class=“line-numbers”><strong><a href=“#n20” name=“n20”>20</a></strong></span>]</pre></div> </div>
<p>The Glyph
code above corresponds to the following HTML code:</p>
<div class="CodeRay"> <div class="code"><pre><span class="line-numbers"> <a href="#n1" name="n1">1</a></span><span class="tag"><div</span> <span class="attribute-name">class</span>=<span class="string"><span class="delimiter">"</span><span class="content">section</span><span class="delimiter">"</span></span><span class="tag">></span>
<span class=“line-numbers”> <a href=“#n2” name=“n2”>2</a></span> <span class=“tag”><h2</span> <span class=“attribute-name”>id</span>=<span class=“string”><span class=“delimiter”>"</span><span class=“content”>h_10</span><span class=“delimiter”>"</span></span><span class=“tag”>></span>Something about Glyph
<span class=“tag”></h2></span> <span class=“line-numbers”> <a href=“#n3” name=“n3”>3</a></span> <span class=“tag”><p></span> <span class=“line-numbers”> <a href=“#n4” name=“n4”>4</a></span> You can use Glyph
macros in conjunction with <span class=“line-numbers”> <a href=“#n5” name=“n5”>5</a></span> <span class=“tag”><em></span>Textile<span class=“tag”></em></span> or <span class=“tag”><em></span>Markdown<span class=“tag”></em></span> to <span class=“line-numbers”> <a href=“#n6” name=“n6”>6</a></span> produce HTML files effortlessly. <span class=“line-numbers”> <a href=“#n7” name=“n7”>7</a></span> <span class=“tag”></p></span> <span class=“line-numbers”> <a href=“#n8” name=“n8”>8</a></span> <span class=“tag”><p></span> <span class=“line-numbers”> <a href=“#n9” name=“n9”>9</a></span> Alternatively, you can just use <span class=“tag”><em></span>Glyph itself<span class=“tag”></em></span> <span class=“line-numbers”><strong><a href=“#n10” name=“n10”>10</a></strong></span> to generate HTML tags. <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n11” name=“n11”>11</a></span> <span class=“tag”></p></span> <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n12” name=“n12”>12</a></span> <span class=“tag”><div</span> <span class=“attribute-name”>class</span>=<span class=“string”><span class=“delimiter”>"</span><span class=“content”>section</span><span class=“delimiter”>"</span></span><span class=“tag”>></span> <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n13” name=“n13”>13</a></span> <span class=“tag”><h3</span> <span class=“attribute-name”>id</span>=<span class=“string”><span class=“delimiter”>"</span><span class=“content”>pdf</span><span class=“delimiter”>"</span></span><span class=“tag”>></span>What about PDFs?<span class=“tag”></h3></span> <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n14” name=“n14”>14</a></span> <span class=“tag”><p></span> <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n15” name=“n15”>15</a></span> Once you have a single, well-formatted HTML <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n16” name=“n16”>16</a></span> file, converting it to PDF is <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n17” name=“n17”>17</a></span> extremely easy with a free 3rd-party renderer <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n18” name=“n18”>18</a></span> like <span class=“tag”><a</span> <span class=“attribute-name”>href</span>=<span class=“string”><span class=“delimiter”>"</span><span class=“content”>www.princexml.com class=“delimiter”>"</span></span><span class=“tag”>></span>Prince<span class=“tag”></a></span> <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n19” name=“n19”>19</a></span> or <span class=“tag”><a</span> <span class=“attribute-name”>href</span>=<span class=“string”><span class=“delimiter”>"</span><span class=“content”>code.google.com/p/wkhtmltopdf/ class=“delimiter”>"</span></span><span class=“tag”>></span>wkhtmltopdf<span class=“tag”></a></span>. <span class=“line-numbers”><strong><a href=“#n20” name=“n20”>20</a></strong></span> <span class=“tag”></p></span> <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n21” name=“n21”>21</a></span> <span class=“tag”></div></span> <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n22” name=“n22”>22</a></span><span class=“tag”></div></span></pre></div> </div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h4 id=“h_4” class=“toc”>Content Reuse</h4> <p>Finding yourself repeating the same sentence over an over? Glyph
allows you to create snippets. Within snippets. Within other snippets (and so on, for a long long time…) as long as you don’t define a snippet by defining itself, which would be kinda nasty (and Glyph
would complain!):</p>
<div class="CodeRay"> <div class="code"><pre><span class="line-numbers"><a href="#n1" name="n1">1</a></span>snippet:[entities|snippets and macros]
<span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n2” name=“n2”>2</a></span>snippet:[custom_definitions| <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n3” name=“n3”>3</a></span> p[Glyph allows you to define your own &.] <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n4” name=“n4”>4</a></span>] <span class=“line-numbers”><a href=“#n5” name=“n5”>5&</pre></div> </div>
<p>...which results in:</p> <div class="CodeRay"> <div class="code"><pre><span class="line-numbers"><a href="#n1" name="n1">1</a></span><span class="tag"><p></span>Glyph allows you to define your own snippets and macros.<span class="tag"></p></span></pre></div>
</div>
<p>If yourself dreaming about <em>parametric</em> snippets, just create your own macros (see the <a href="http://github.com/h3rald/glyph/blob/master/book/text/changelog.glyph">source</a> of Glyph’s changelog, just to have an idea).</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h4 id=“h_5” class=“toc”>Automation of Common Tasks</h4> <p>If you’re writing a book, you shouldn’t have to worry about pagination, headers, footers, table of contents, section numbering or similar. Glyph
understands you, and will take care of everything for you (with a little help from CSS3, sometimes).</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h4 id=“h_6” class=“toc”>Reference Validation</h4> <p>Feel free to add plenty of links, snippets, bookmarks, … if Glyph
doesn’t find something, it will definitely complain. Broken references are a thing on the past, and you don’t need to worry about it.</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h4 id=“h_7” class=“toc”>Extreme Extensibility</h4> <ul>
<li>You miss a <code>!!!</code> macro to format really, <em>really</em> important things? Create it. In under 3 seconds, in Ruby or Glyph itself. And yes, you can use special characters, too.</li> <li>You want your own, very special special <code>glyph create --everything</code> command to create all <em>you</em> need in a Glyph project? You can do it. Using your own Rake tasks, too.</li> <li>You want Glyph to output <span class="caps">ODF</span> files? You can do it, and you’ll be able to run <code>glyph generate -f odf</code>. This would probably require a little more time, but it’s trivial, from a technical point of view.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h4 id=“h_8” class=“toc”>Convention over Configuration</h4> <p>Put your text files in /text
, your images in /images
, add custom macros in a macro
folder within your /lib
folder… you get the picture: Glyph
has its special places.</p> <p>Nonetheless, you also have 1 (one) configuration file to customize to your heart’s content (with smart defaults).</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h4 id=“h_9” class=“toc”>Free and Open Source</h4> <p>Glyph is 100% Open Source Software, developed using the Ruby Programming Language and licensed under the very permissive terms of the <a href=“www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php”> class=“caps”>MIT</span> License</a>.</p> <p>If you have Ruby installed, just run gem install glyph
. That’s all it takes.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h3 id=“h_10” class=“toc”>Resources</h3> <ul>
<li>Home Page: <a href="http://www.h3rald.com/glyph/">http://www.h3rald.com/glyph/</a></li> <li>Repository: <a href="http://www.github.com/h3rald/glyph/">http://www.github.com/h3rald/glyph/</a></li> <li>Bug Tracking: <a href="http://www.github.com/h3rald/glyph/issues">http://www.github.com/h3rald/glyph/issues</a></li> <li>Development Wiki <a href="http://wiki.github.com/h3rald/glyph">http://wiki.github.com/h3rald/glyph</a></li> <li>RubyGem Download <a href="http://www.rubygems.org/gems/glyph">http://www.rubygems.org/gems/glyph</a></li> <li>Book (<span class="caps">PDF</span>): <a href="http://github.com/downloads/h3rald/glyph/glyph.pdf">http://github.com/downloads/h3rald/glyph/glyph.pdf</a></li> <li>Book (Web): <a href="http://www.h3rald.com/glyph/book/">http://www.h3rald.com/glyph/book/</a></li> <li>Reference Documentation: <a href="http://rubydoc.info/gems/glyph/">http://rubydoc.info/gems/glyph/</a></li> <li>User Group: <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/glyph-framework">http://groups.google.com/group/glyph-framework</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>