[oll-user] 'snippets' Github interface idea

[Urs L. <ul...@op...>]

Hi folks,

I try for the first time to use the oll-user list for the purpose of 
discussion of the new snippets repository.

I suggest doing this in the future for two reasons:
- automatically include anybody who might be interested
   (including people one wouldn't have thought of in the first place)
- keeping the content available in the public mailing list archive

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I had an idea to improve the web presentation of the snippets on Github:

Write a script that iterates over all snippets and generate a Markdown 
file to display the snippet in the Github interface.
I see two options:
- generate an accompanying .md file that can be clicked upon
- place all snippets in its dedicated subdirectory and create a 
README.md file

I would suggest the second solution although that will result in a large 
number of subdirectories.
This way as soon as one opens the directory the README is displayed 
automatically.

In the basic version the generated file would contain
- A heading and a general short introductory text
- A generated image (the example output of the compilable file)
   -> one more incentive to include good examples
- The complete code listing
   (unfortunately it isn't possible to provide code highlighting like in 
the blog posts)

In a later version one could (quite easily) extract meta information 
from the snippet and provide them in a formatted and structured display.

The script would be run locally every now and then by an admin.
Some issues to be considered:
- Try to determine snippets to be processed (i. e. only new or modified 
ones)
   recompiling snippets with differing LIlyPond versions would result in 
the images to be modified
   (i.e. detected as changes by Git)
- Determine appropriate LilyPond versions to compile the snippets

I would write such a script in Python.

What do you think?
Urs