Re: Using Pandoc with m4

[Simon Michael <simon-jbxitMBJ2LLQT0dZR+AlfA@public.gmane.org>]

On 11/12/16 4:42 AM, Alec Clews wrote:
> I thought people might be interested in how I've used Pandoc and the m4
> macro processor together recently
>
> I wrote an article about using Git; with lots of examples, the output from
> running the examples and various diagrams to illustrate the effect of the
> examples.
>
> So I wrote some small (but complex) m4 macros to execute the various
> example commands and turn the output into Pandoc content for processing
> inline with the rest of my writing.
>
> You can see the input files here
>
> https://github.com/alecthegeek/version-control-basics
>
> Big thanks to John for creating such an awesome tool as Pandoc.
Hi Alec,

thanks for sharing this! I am reading with interest and learning useful 
things.

Here's my own m4 & pandoc setup:

utils: https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/doc/lib.m4
a doc: 
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/simonmichael/hledger/master/hledger-ui/doc/hledger-ui.1.m4.md
makefile: https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/Shake.hs)

I'm new to m4, but I find it's power seductive and complementary to 
pandoc. I could do some or all of this (conditionals, macros..) with 
pandoc filters, but it felt like more boilerplate and more work.