Docs templates and build process

Performing a build from source written using AsciiDoc requires use of an Asciidoctor toolchain.

This repo contains the required information, folder structure, resources, and themes to build professional quality pdfs for RISC-V specifications.

We have documented both MacOS and Windows installs--please scroll down to find Windows. If you are a contributor and need assistance, please contact us.

When you clone this repo, you have the file structure on your machine that you need for creating professional quality pdfs from AsciiDoc, along with example files that demonstrate how to handle the use cases that we have encountered.

This is a work in progress, and the tools can change, so please let us know if you run into problems and/or have questions.

A comment on Asciidoctor toolchains

Because there are several different toolchains that can be used for publishing content from AsciiDoc, you might come across different sources of information on the Web.

The Asciidoctor toolchains include ones that use:

• python (old)
• Ruby (established)
• NPM (new)

We are using the Ruby toolchain because it supports building the customizable, full-featured pdf required for RISC-V specifications.

To support building WaveDrom diagrams directly from scripts contained in blocks in the AsciiDoc source files, we use NPM to install the wavedrom-cli, even though we are using the Ruby toolchain.

NOTE: Even though NPM is required for the Wavedrom diagrams to work properly, we are not using the Asciidoctor NPM toolchain.

Install Ruby on MacOS

Install Ruby using RVM, and then install the Asciidoctor gem.

RVM is a Ruby installation and version manager. RVM works by installing Ruby inside your home directory and manages the environment variables to allow you to switch between the system-wide Ruby and any Ruby installed using RVM.

ALERT: RVM is essential for creating pdfs because, paradoxically, the pdf build works best using Ruby version 2.5.x rather than more recent version.

• Install the RVM (https://rvm.io/rvm/install):

\curl -sSL https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable --ruby

RVM will download and build the Ruby language and RubyGems along with several essential gems and configure your PATH environment variable.

After the install is finished, open a new Terminal window and remove your local Gem configuration, if you have one (or move it out of the way):

rm -f HOME/.gemrc

For the purpose of the pdf build, install Ruby version 2.5.x:

rvm install ruby-2.5

MacOS—use RVM on MacOS

When using RVM, you can switch between the system-wide Ruby and RVM-managed Ruby using these two commands:

• Switch to system-wide Ruby:

rvm use system

• Switch to RVM-managed version 2.5.9 for use in building pdf:

rvm use 2.5.9

ALERT: Ensure that you are using the same Ruby version for all Ruby gems that you install for the Asciidoctor toolchain.

Windows—install Ruby with RVM

NOTE: Users of Windows 10 are reporting problems with RVM. We plan to test the use of Cygwin as a workaround. Please note that if you don't need asciidoctor-mathematical for rendering of mathematical expressions, you can make use of Ruby 2.7.2.

• For Windows, use: http://rubyinstaller.org/

NOTE: During the Windows install, click in the installer to:

• associate the .rvm with the current version
• add paths
• add tdtk

ALERT: Ensure that you are using the same Ruby version for all gems that you install for the Asciidoctor toolchain.

MacOS--install Asciidoctor

• Install Asciidoctor:

gem install asciidoctor

• Verify Asciidoctor is installed:

asciidoctor --version

If you see the Asciidoctor version information printed in the terminal, then you’re already able to build html from an .adoc file using:

asciidoctor filename.adoc

Windows—add the Asciidoctor gem

• Navigate to the following url:

https://rubygems.org/gems/asciidoctor/

• Scroll down to the latest version and click the download button.

• In Powershell, use the following command to install the Asciidoctor gem:

gem install asciidoctor <path-to-downloaded-gem>

Both Windows and MacOS, for pdf's and bibliographies

Install the following:

• asciidoctor-pdf gem, which is needed for pdf rendering.
• asciidoctor-bibtex gem, which is needed for auto-creation of a bibliography from citations.

gem install asciidoctor-pdf 
gem install asciidoctor-bibtex

Information on the markup required for use of diagramming, mathemtical notation, and creating a bibliography with references to it, see the example.pdf in this repo.

Add syntax highlighting gems for AsciiDoc output

Install syntax highlighting gems as follows (for Windows, append the string --source http://rubygems.org to each command):

gem install coderay
gem install rouge
gem install pygments.rb

Add node and wavedrom-cli for WaveDrom diagrams

For MacOS:

brew install node
npm install -g wavedrom-cli

Check that wavedrom-cli is in the path (this should display the help):

wavedrom-cli

NOTE: It appears that Oracle JDK is also required for WaveDrom diagrams to work. You can find a link to the JDK below.

For Windows:

Download the installer from https://nodejs.org/en/ and install node, then use npm to install wavedrom-cli:

npm install -g wavedrom-cli

Whether you are using Windows of MacOS, check that wavedrom-cli is in the path (this should display the help):

wavedrom-cli

WARNING: For the MacOS, if you upgrade from a prior version to Big Sur, you must reinstall first the NPM and then the NPM version of the wavedrom-cli.

Install the prerequisites for asciidoctor-mathematical

Support for mathematical notation is not required for each and every specification, and installing both the prerequisites and the gem itself have been tricky on the Mac.

brew install pango gdk-pixbuf cairo cmake

ALERT: You can find various discussions about problems with getting asciidoctor-mathematical to install properly on the MacOS, and the solutions vary. It appears that after more than one MacOS update, the file permissions can cause problems. It appears that cleaning up prior versions of Ruby (while maintaining the current version installed with the Xcode developer tools), and completely removing and reinstalling RVM can resolve the problem.

Install gems that support Wavedrom and for Mathematical

Now that the prerequisites are installed, install the two additional gems:

gem install asciidoctor-diagram
gem install asciidoctor-mathematical

AsciiDoc book headers and styles

Attributes in the book headers for RISC-V AsciiDoc content control aspects of the pdf build. Together with the risc-v_spec-pdf.yml file, they enable, among other things, numbered headings, a TOC, running headers and footers, footnotes at chapter ends, custom fonts, admonitions, an index, and an optional colophon.

For shorter documents, you have the option of using a report header, however, we have not yet provided branding for it.

NOTE: The headers are already in the template files. The only changes you normally need to make are to add chapter-sized sections in using the syntax include::filename.adoc[] in the order by which you want them to appear.

Create and name a new .adoc file

• In your text editor, create a new file.
• Assign a name and save with the .adoc extension.
• In the first line, add [file_name] (using a meaningful string for the filename) and in the second line, use a double "==" to indicate a topic heading, add some content, and save the file with an .adoc file extension.
• In the header file, add include::file_name.adoc and save it.

NOTE: Blank lines are not allowed in between the include::file_name.adoc files.

HTML build

Building in HTML is a good way to check that your content under development builds properly.

As soon as you have installed Asciidoctor, you can build HTML content from any .adoc file on your own machine--simply CD into the directory that contains your .adoc files and run the following:

asciidoctor any_file_name.adoc

This generates a file named any_file_name.html.

For pdf output, cd into this cloned directory and use this command:

asciidoctor-pdf -r asciidoctor-diagram -r asciidoctor-mathematical book_header.adoc -a pdf-style=resources/themes/risc-v_spec-pdf.yml -a pdf-fontsdir=resources/fonts

This generates a file named book_header.pdf that makes use of the graphics, styles, and fonts that is identical to example.pdf.

ALERT: When copying/pasting commands for the CLI on the Windows OS, check that no substitutions are being made. We have seen the '=' get replaced with a '#', causing an error message about fonts.

For your own content, change the name of the header file to a meaningful file name, and change the include::filename.adoc as needed.

AsciiDoc and Asciidoctor toolchain documentation

• AsciiDoc writers' guide: https://asciidoctor.org/docs/asciidoc-writers-guide/
• AsciiDoc quick reference: http://asciidoctor.org/docs/asciidoc-syntax-quick-reference/
• Asciidoctor user manual: http://asciidoctor.org/docs/user-manual/

Conversion

Almost all conversions require some cleanup.

The most reliable converter from LaTeX to AsciiDoc that I have found is Pandoc:

https://pandoc.org/getting-started.html

After installing Pandoc on your machine, you can begin the conversion using the following pattern:

pandoc source_file.tex destination_file.adoc

After that first step, you must open the file using a text editor with a good AsciiDoc linter and clean it up.

You can find a list of text editors that support AsciiDoc authoring (with linters and/or syntax highlighting) in its documentation at https://docs.asciidoctor.org/asciidoctor/latest/tooling/, and a more comprehensive list at https://github.com/bodiam/awesome-asciidoc.

While Pandoc does a reasonably good job, there are always documentation nits that must be addressed.

If you want to make use of change bars

The current procedure for changebars is, aditedly, a bit fiddly, but the convenience value of changebars that show up in a pdf can make them worth the effort.

To support changebars, the following has been added to the YAML stylesheet:

role:
  Changed:
    border:
      width: .25
      changebar: 1
      color: $base_font_color
      offset: 2

Note the changebar entry--this is used as a key to key to create the bars.

To support rendering of changebars in your local build, you must modify tow files in your local gem:

transform.rb line18 :

       'border_changebar' => :border_changebar,

text_background_and_border_renderer.rb line 38:

if (border_width = data[:border_changebar])
        border_width = 1
        border_color = data[:border_color]
        prev_stroke_color = pdf.stroke_color
        prev_line_width = pdf.line_width
        pdf.stroke_color border_color
        pdf.line_width border_width
        pdf.stroke_vertical_line fragment.top + border_offset, fragment.top-height, :at => 50 - pdf.bounds.absolute_left 
        pdf.stroke_color prev_stroke_color
        pdf.line_width prev_line_width
      elsif (border_width = data[:border_width])

At this point changebars require manual entry and removal. You can find documentation for how to use markup for changebars in the example.pdf.

An automated process in CI/CD does look possible.

Link to JDK

You can find information on installing the JDK on a MacOS here: https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/15/install/installation-jdk-macos.html#GUID-F575EB4A-70D3-4AB4-A20E-DBE95171AB5F