thruflo

thruflo is a document authoring system. It's still in early, alpha development probably won't work yet if you try to use it.

Problem

• copying and pasting is inefficient
• formating is inefficient and introduces brand inconsistencies
• collaboration by email / locking is limited

Solution

• write using markdown
• format using stylesheets
• reuse sections of previous documents

Implementation

• web UI as editor
• don't think just type
• output
  • documents
  • presentations
  • webpages
  • slideshows
  • emailshots
  • to print
• formats:
  • pdf
  • html

Reuse

• use markdown headings to demarcate sections
• sections stored using <!-- section:${path} --> comment syntax
• path is human readable, corresponding to ./path/fo/file.md#heading (so it's manually editable by advanced users)
• section data is denormalised, with the locally cached (i.e.: in the file) version used if the section path fails to resolve

foo.md:

# Foo

## Intro

Lorum ipsum.

## Outro

Dolores dulcit.

bar.md:

# Bar

<!-- section:foo.md#intro -->

## Intro

Lorum ipsum.

<!-- end section -->

## Outro

Glug glug.

Unpinning

• in the web UI, re-used sections are visually demarcated using bespin syntax highlighting
• the heading is not editable
• editing the content saves the original document
• "unpin" to edit without saving the original (or to edit the heading)
• this removes the wrapper and just edits the new document directly