modifying the TXT output format

[ctop]

Hi there,

I would like to slightly modify the TXT output format in the following way: I want to have '*' characters in front of each headline (that is H1 .. H6 in HTML) so that the number of star characters reflects the depth of the headline; e.g. H3 would turn into *** . I wonder how such a change could be made.

Any help welcome!

Ctop

[kovidgoyal]

Look at the file txtml.py in the source code and change it to do what you need.

[user_none]

In the txtml.py file look at line 170, # Are we in a paragraph block?. At the end of this block just check for the h tags and append the correct number of *s.

Though instead of making this very specific why not create a new txt output generator that produces markdown text?

[ctop]

Originally Posted by user_none

In the txtml.py file look at line 170, # Are we in a paragraph block?. At the end of this block just check for the h tags and append the correct number of *s.

Thanks, I figured that out and it works.

Originally Posted by user_none

Though instead of making this very specific why not create a new txt output generator that produces markdown text?

This is an excellent idea. How would I go about that?

Another question: I tried to add more markup, for example italic or bold. I see the settings in the CSS file and even in the intermediate versions I get with debug output, but when I try to work with the styles (for example 'font-style; italic;'), they seem at some point to be changed to 'font-style: normal;' and do not arrive at txtml.py.

Could this be a bug?

I looked around a bit, but could not find where this replacing happens. Just to check I looked at the RTF output, and there seems to be the italic missing as well.

Any help appreciated,

Ctop

[user_none]

Originally Posted by ctop

This is an excellent idea. How would I go about that?

Copy txtmlizer.py and name it something like markdownmlizer.py. Then make the changes to markdownmlizer.py like you were doing previously to have it write markdown formatting in the appropriate places.

Supporting the MarkdownMLizer would be the easiest part. In the txt output.py file all you would need to do is add an option (--markdown-output for example) and in the convert function assign the writer variable to the MarkdownMLizer object. For example:

def convert(self, oeb_book, output_path, input_plugin, opts, log):
    if opts.markdown-output:
        writer = MarkdownMLizer(log)
    else:
        writer = TXTMLizer(log)
    txt = writer.extract_content(oeb_book, opts)

Originally Posted by ctop

Could this be a bug?

Most likely yes. Open a ticket so it can be looked into.

[ctop]

Originally Posted by user_none

Copy txtmlizer.py and name it something like markdownmlizer.py. Then make the changes to markdownmlizer.py like you were doing previously to have it write markdown formatting in the appropriate places.

I will give this a try. Thanks for the hint!

Originally Posted by user_none

Most likely yes. Open a ticket so it can be looked into.

Upon further inspection, it looks more like I am misunderstanding how this works. Investigating further now (or better: as soon as I have time for it).

best,

Ctop