Standalone Plugins¶
Some ideas on standalone plugins that can be developed and shared independently or included in TeXSmith by default. These are some features that I can use myself and that can be useful to others.
Epigraph¶
Integrate epigraph support via a dedicated plugin. The goal is to let users insert epigraphs easily from Markdown files. It can be declared as a fragment and declared in the document via front matter:
epigraph: text
epigraph:
quote: "To be, or not to be, that is the question."
source: "William Shakespeare, Hamlet"
This is inserted into the LATEX output using the epigraph package:
\usepackage{epigraph}
\setlength\epigraphwidth{0.6\textwidth}
\setlength\epigraphrule{0pt}
Then, at the desired location in the document:
\epigraph{To be, or not to be, that is the question.}{William Shakespeare, \textit{Hamlet}}
SvgBob¶
This can be a good example of a standalone TeXSmith plugin that allows rendering ASCII art diagrams using Svgbob.
Svgbob lets you sketch diagrams using ASCII art. Save the source with a .bob extension (or keep it inline) and link to it like any other image:
During the build TeXSmith calls the bundled Svgbob converter, generates a PDF, and inserts it into the final LATEX output. Cached artifacts prevent repeated rendering when the source diagram stays the same.
SVGBob can be installed on Ubuntu via:
cargo install svgbob_cli
It is installed by default into svgbob_cli or ~/.cargo/bin/svgbob_cli. We want to check both, warn if the binary is missing, and allow users to override the path via configuration.
We can insert the image in both ways:
```svgbob
+10-15V ___0,047R
*---------o-----o-|___|-o--o---------o----o-------.
+ | | | | | | | |
-===- _|_ | | .+. | | |
-===- .-. | | | | 2k2 | | |
-===- 470| + | | | | | | _|_
- | uF| '--. | '+' .+. | \ / LED
+---------o |6 |7 |8 1k | | | -+-
___|___ .-+----+--+--. | | | |
-═══- | | '+' | |
- | |1 | |/ BC |
GND | +------o--+ 547 |
| | | |`> |
| | ,+. | |
.-------+ | 220R| | o----||-+ IRF9Z34
| | | | | | |+->
| | MC34063 | `+' | ||-+
| | | | | | BYV29 -12V6
| | | '----' o--|<-o----o--X OUT
6000 micro - | + | |2 | | |
Farad, 40V ___|_____ | |--o C| | |
Capacitor ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ | | GND 30uH C| | --- 470
| |3 1nF C| | ### uF
| | |-------||--. | | | +
| '-----+----+-' | GND | GND
| 5| 4| | |
| | '-------------o-------------o
| | ___ |
`-------------*------/\/\/------------o--|___|-'
2k | 1k0
.+.
| | 5k6 + 3k3
| | in Serie
'+'
|
GND
```
If Svgbob is not available, diagrams can be skipped with a warning and rendered as code blocks.
CircuitTikZ¶
The CircuitTikZ designer helps produce circuit diagrams from the browser. Export the generated TikZ snippet and wrap it in a raw LATEX fence:
```latex { circuitikz }
\begin{circuitikz}
\draw (0,0) to[battery] (0,2)
-- (3,2) to[R=R] (3,0) -- (0,0);
\end{circuitikz}
```
Raw blocks bypass the HTML output but remain in the LATEX build. To keep the TikZ code in a separate file, include it via \input{} inside a raw fence and store the .tex asset alongside the Markdown.
Module Design Principles¶
Verify that TeXSmith respects these design principles:
- Modules can inject, extend, and redefine functionality.
- Modules remain deterministic through topological ordering.
- Modules foster reusability and remixing.
- Modules cooperate through well-defined contracts.
Visual Tweaks¶
- Reduce line height for code that uses Unicode box characters.
- Restyle inserted text (currently green and overly rounded); see “Formatting inserted text”.
{~~deleted text~~}should drop the curly braces, which currently leak into the output.
Issues¶
Markdown Package Issues¶
mkdocstrings autorefs define heading anchors via [](){#}, which triggers Markdown lint violations. Find a syntax or lint configuration that avoids false positives.