Pillar

Pillar is a markup syntax and tool-suite to generate documentation, books, websites and slides. Pillar is not new, it was invented around 2000 as a supporting language for SmallWiki: one of the first wiki using OOP for real. Its ancestor was the markup for the Pier CMS and we extracted it from Pier to make it more applicable to different domains. The Pillar syntax is similar to markdown but its emphasis is on publishing and how it handles different types of links.

Now Pillar is now supporting Microdown syntax and we migrated all the support to Microdown while supporting the Pillar syntax for backward compatibility reasons. We can migrate automatically books from Pillar syntax to Microdown syntax (compatible with markdown).

Pillar is now the name of the compilation chain and the syntax language is Microdown.

Installation

1. Building from sources

For HTTPS setup, execute the build.sh script found in the scripts directory:

Here is the latest version for Pharo 12.

$ git clone https://github.com/pillar-markup/pillar.git
$ cd pillar
$ git checkout v10.4.0
$ chmod a+x ./scripts/build.sh
$ ./scripts/build.sh

Here is the latest version for Pharo 11.

$ git clone https://github.com/pillar-markup/pillar.git
$ cd pillar
$ git checkout v9.0.1
$ chmod a+x ./scripts/build.sh
$ ./scripts/build.sh

Here is the latest version for Pharo 10.

$ git clone https://github.com/pillar-markup/pillar.git
$ cd pillar
$ git checkout v8.3.2
$ chmod a+x ./scripts/build.sh
$ ./scripts/build.sh

The script will create a build directory in your current working directory with the pillar installation.

$ ls
LICENSE  README.md  appveyor.yml  archetypes  ==>>build<<==  download.sh  scripts  src

2. Setting up the environment

You can then proceed to install that pillar build where you want. For example, you can place it in a hidden directory in your home directory:

$ cd ..
$ mv pillar ~/.pillar

Then add that directory to the PILLAR_HOME and HOME environment variables, for example, by modifying your .bashrc with

export PILLAR_HOME="$HOME/.pillar"

To make the pillar command available in your shell you can:

• either symlink the pillar script into your ~/bin (or ~/.local/bin on some environments) folder using:

ln -s $PILLAR_HOME/build/pillar ~/bin/pillar

• or add the build folder into your PATH environment variable, for example by adding into your .bashrc (or shell startup):

export PATH="$PATH:$PILLAR_HOME/build"

3. Install external dependencies

You need to have a LaTeX installation in your machine. The simplest is to do a full installation, otherwise read below for a more tailored solution.

Installing LaTeX on OSX

The simplest installation is to do a full Mactex installation. Just follow the instructions in https://www.tug.org/mactex/

Installing LaTeX on *nix

The simplest way to install LaTeX on unix is to install texlive-full in your system using your preferred package manager.

Installing LaTeX on Windows

Install a LaTeX distribution such as MiKTeX and install the dependencies specified below using the provided package manager. Then, make sure the bin directory is in your PATH environment variable. For example this could be the following value:

Tailored installation (for non-full lovers)

Producing pdf documents with Pillar requires a LaTeX installation with certain packages. Check the ensure-deps.sh files and the support/latex.

Getting started

To create a book, you can start by installing the book archetype in a directory where you want to manage it:

$ mkdir my-new-book
$ cd my-new-book
$ pillar archetype bod-book

You can then edit the pillar files and the pillar configuration file pillar.conf. Finally, you can generate your book in pdf using.

$ pillar build pdf

Or in html:

$ pillar build html

The resulting pdf or html site will be written into the _result directory.

All commands

Add the -h flag to get documentation.

pillar build It builds by default the export format found in pillar.conf at defaultExport target.

pillar archetype

pillar updateTemplate

Contributing to Pillar

The current pillar version is being developed using Pharo12. To contribute, the easiest way to to follow the previous scripts and send PullRequests. Use the latest dev as a root for your changes.

Cleaning first

First remove existing packages from the Pharo distribution.

#( 'Microdown' 'BeautifulComments' 'DocumentBrowser' ) do: [ :name |
		(IceRepository repositoryNamed: name)
			ifNil: [ self inform: 'Project not found: ' , name ]
			ifNotNil: [ :found |
				found
					unload;
					forget ] ]

The following script can be useful if you develop using the launcher and want to try to execute the image as from a pillar command

/Users/ducasse/Documents/Pharo/vms/100-x64/Pharo.app/Contents/MacOS/Pharo  /Users/ducasse/Documents/Pharo/images/P11-PillarRealReference/P10-PillarRealReference.image clap build pdf index.pillar

History

For Pharo 12

The development of Pillar and Microdown are now in Pharo 12.

• v10.4.0

  • Cleaned archetypes
  • New documentation inside the bod-book template with the full syntax explained.
    • Uses Microdown V2.7.1: introduces new elements to support Foliage and web generation. It improves the document checker. Now the following analyses are reported: duplicated anchors, references to unexisting anchors, unreferenced figures, missing figure files, and missing input files.
    • It has been tested with the bod-book updated archetype.

• v10.2.0

  • New book checkers: checks for undefined or duplicated anchors, bogus inputfile
  • Support for slides as header e.g. # a nice title Conversion of slides from pillar to Microdown
  • Nicer support for extension e.g. {!comment|contents=sd thinks there is something fishy!} now can be expressed as {!comment|sd thinks there is something fishy!}`
  • Cleaned book. Now pillar archetype bod-book can fully build on GH - check the workflows files that are automatically installed.
  • Two new archetypes are proposed: microdown-mooc and microdown-headerformat-mooc.
  • Support for github actions with LaTeX.

• v10.1.0 Introduces new template for slides - microdown-mooc (based on extension <!slide...!>) and microdown-headerformat-mooc (using top-level header as slide definition marker. It uses Microdown v2.5.5.

• v10.0.1 Introduces figure arguments in caption instead of url for better integration with Github.

• v10.0.0 bug fix with some links problems due to new inline parser.

For Pharo 11

• v9.0.1 Fixing link problems.
• v9.0.0 loading in Pharo 11.

For Pharo 10

• v8.3.2 fixed baseline and updated readme
• 8.3.0 full support for microdown and pillar books using MD v2.3.1
• 8.2.7 [Bogus] full support for microdown and pillar books (but it did load the correct version of microdown)
• 8.2.6 [Bogus] full support for microdown and pillar books (but it did load the correct version of microdown)
• 8.2.4-5 introduced hooks for file include in Pillar and microdown
• 8.2.3 remove temporary PRMicrodownWriter (since it was ported to MicrodownV2)
• 8.2.2 -- cache table of contents to avoid quadratic search -- Ready for P10 SubOSProcess 1.4, ifError:
• 8.2.1 remove pillar before loading
• 8.2.0 Change microdownDev to Microdown 1.0.0
• 8.0.15
• 8.0.12 Tagged versions from 8.0.4 to 8.0.12 excluded got broken due to a class renaming. 8.0.12 is now green tests and loads. It is the future candidate for stable.
• 7.7.4 Last version before moving to P8.
• 7.7.3 introduces the possibility to use LaTeX 2018 or the rolling version of 2019. Check the ensure-deps.sh and companion travis file in the support/latex of the archetype.
• 7.7.0 cleaned useless features, plus travis builds.
• 7.5.0 introduces environments (${begin:card|x=12}$ ... ${end:card}$
• 7.4.1 introduces element-based templating (templates found in a given folder are used to output one given element).

Planned development

• Take advantage of booktester
• Check Macrodown and Foliage
• Stronger support for math
• Use Templating for LaTeX
• Integration with Citezen
• Better templates for Web
• New markup for natural nesting (not forcing closing markup)

Old and obsolete documentation

Read the documentation at https://github.com/SquareBracketAssociates/Booklet-PublishingAPillarBooklet. Please note that chapter on "Pharo a web Perspective" is obsolete since it refers to Pharo 60.