Track blog

1 files changed, 85 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/drafts/posts/smoothing-over-more-markdown-pain-points.md b/drafts/posts/smoothing-over-more-markdown-pain-points.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ab87edb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/drafts/posts/smoothing-over-more-markdown-pain-points.md
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
++++
+title = "Smoothing Over More Markdown Pain Points"
+tags = ["blogging", "emacs"]
+date = 2025-12-05
+
+summary = """
+
+A post I had written about a small Elisp helper library I wrote for \
+generating a table of contents for a Markdown file.
+
+"""
+
++++
+
+# Table of Contents
+
++ [I Couldn't Keep It Together](#i-couldn't-keep-it-together)
++ [Elisp For The Win](#elisp-for-the-win)
++ [Yet Another Yasnippet Testimonial](#yet-another-yasnippet-testimonial)
++ [Now I Can Keep It Together!](#now-i-can-keep-it-together!)
+
+
+<a id="i-couldn't-keep-it-together"></a>
+# I Couldn't Keep It Together
+
+As I go about editing these blogs as Markdown buffers inside Emacs,
+I've been running into a snag of sorts. Previously, I had been
+exporting Org to Markdown one way or another. I observed how the
+Markdown output inserts an anchor tag above a given section as a way
+to link to it from the table of contents. I decided to continue this
+practice in my now hand-wrought Markdown. However, manually keeping
+the table of contents in sync with changes in the outlining of the
+content itself—adding and removing sections, renaming sections, and so
+on—is a pain.  And so I came up with a way to sync the two, using
+Emacs Lisp. Emacs Lisp, or Elisp for short, is the Emacs editor's
+extension language: the language you use to write Emacs plugins.
+
+<a id="elisp-for-the-win"></a>
+# Elisp For The Win
+[Having written](https://brandonirizarry.xyz/blog/writing_my_blog_with_eleventy/#introduction) about my zany Elisp-based Java build system made
+me recall those times: I could once again rise to the challenge, and
+solve this new problem with Elisp. That's exactly what I did. I wrote
+two functions, `bcimd-generate-toc` and `bcimd-remove-toc`. The first
+one regenerates the table of contents based on the current set of
+level-1 headings. The second one erases the existing table of
+contents, along with the connected anchor tags. It's used by the first
+function to start out with a clean slate before defining the new table
+of contents.
+
+I decided to collect these functions into an installable package. It's
+currently available through Emacs' version-control installation
+mechanisms (for example, `package-vc-install`.) See the [project
+README](https://github.com/BrandonIrizarry/bcimd) for more details.
+
+I find Emacs' VC-based package installation facilities extremely
+convenient for writing my own bespoke stuff which I otherwise have to
+manage locally. I store it remotely, and install it as an *official*
+package, much like how Go packages work. In this way, I can even share
+my work with the community.
+
+<a id="yet-another-yasnippet-testimonial"></a>
+# Yet Another Yasnippet Testimonial
+
+I also decided to go the extra mile and use a [Yasnippet](Yasnippet) snippet
+that generates some stock front matter. In particular, the title of a
+given blog post is ripped directly from the name of the file itself,
+which first undergoes some on-the-fly formatting. I got this idea from
+[another blog](https://weblog.masukomi.org/2024/07/19/using-org-mode-with-hugo/) where the author runs with the whole Yasnippet idea
+to set up her `ox-hugo` front matter. In fact, this is what turned me
+on to the idea of Yasnippet as a useful tool in general; that is, it
+isn't just a lazy man's way of inserting a for-loop into source code.
+
+<a id="now-i-can-keep-it-together!"></a>
+# Now I Can Keep It Together!
+
+I now use table-of-contents regeneration frequently: writing the
+package was a worthwhile investment of time.The only minor hiccup is
+that I have to remember to leave two spaces in between headers, so
+that the anchor tag doesn't eliminate all whitespace between sections,
+an effect which looks aesthetically jarring. I may address this in the
+future, but I first need to see how this package interacts with, for
+example, level-2 headers. Other ideas include running
+table-of-contents generation as an `after-save-hook`, and eventually
+writing a full-blown minor-mode. But for now, I'm taking it easy on
+this project: I still have to work on other things.