'PDF Live Preview' implementation

[vekuda]

Would it be possible to add a 'PDF Live Preview' feature like the one created for VS Code's Better Fountain?

[jrbostic]

How does that plugin's behavior differ from what atom-fountain package currently provides?

[vekuda]

Well that plugin allows you to see side-by-side and in real time how your Fountain syntax is affecting the printed version of your work.

Instead Fountain for Atom only allows you to create a static PDF preview of your work with CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+M...

Am I right, or did I miss something?

[vekuda]

@superlou

Is this enhancement also related to the use of Afterwriting libraries, or is it possible to port something from the VS Code project?

[jrbostic]

Making live preview refresh on file change is more about how atom-fountain behaves on modification to the text editor with active preview. I had thought there was something like that on save... Or that a discussion was had at some point. Will have to scan previous threads and check the pdf preview logic to clarify.

[superlou]

Back with the old HTML preview generator, the preview was live, but it definitely had a lot of weaknesses. The Afterwriting renderer does a very good job of creating accurate PDFs, but the time required to generate them might become a usability issue. Also, I don't see a straightforward way to keep pages aligned between the markup and PDF for long documents.

One work-around for now is to highlight a section of your script, and use the render hotkey to quickly render just the highlighted portion.

[vekuda]

I adopted fountain-atom since a couple of weeks, so I didn't know about the evolution of the package. Now I understand the reasons behind these design choices.

One work-around for now is to highlight a section of your script, and use the render hotkey to quickly render just the highlighted portion.

Wow, I didn't know that! It's not as perfect as live preview, but definitely very practical.

Many thanks for your efforts, the project is extremely useful even as it is!