Cross Reference Markdown

This very small piece of code is my first attempt at coding in Lua. I used it to both learn the Lua language and to solve problems with a Paper I was writing. There are no test cases, it isn't complete yet, there are no comments, and it's my first attempt at Lua. The code went from 0 lines to 400 lines back to 100 lines so as you can see there was lots of refactoring. All this suggests 'buyer-beware' (yes, I'm a terrible person). This said everything is saved to a separate file prefixed with 'xr' so it should not affect your original.

If you like it or use it please make it better, or integrate it into your own tool.

Usage

Simply the code looks for LaTeX like instances of cross-references. So is based on the predicate that the fig:xyz method from LaTeX is used

• cha: chapter [changed from LaTeX]
• sec: section
• ssc: subsection [changed from LaTeX]
• fig: figure
• tab: table
• equ: equation [changed from LaTeX]
• lst: code listing
• itm: enumerated list item
• alg: algorithm
• app: appendix subsection

When it finds something like fig:id then it swaps it out something like Figure 1. However, it does it in a slightly more complex way to maintain readability and standard academic practice as follows:

If you don't use one of these (say peo:xyz) then it swaps it out something like General 1.

In your ID (ie fig:id) you can’t use the following characters:

( ) . % + - * ? [ ] ^ $

as they are ‘special’ in lua search strings and I haven’t got around to escaping them yet.

Images

!![fig:test: -- Some Text -- Other Text.](Figures/figure.jpg "Test")
	changes to => ![Figure 1: Some Text -- Other Text.](Figures/figure.jpg "Figure 1: Test")

[fig:test]: Figures/figure.jpg "Test"
	changes to => [Figure 1]: Figures/figure.jpg "Figure 1: Test"
	
![Some Text -- Some Longer Text.][fig:xyz]
	changes to => ![Figure 2: Some Text -- Some Longer Text.][Figure 2]

MMD Table

[Some text][tab:test]
	changes to => ![Table 1: Some Text.][Table 1]

Links

(see [fig:test])
	changes to => (see Figure 1)

A [reference link][fig:test]
	changes to => A [reference link][Figure 1]

[fig:test]: http://somesite.com "Test"
	changes to => [Figure 1]: http://somesite.com "Figure 1: Test"

[fig:test]: <http://somesite.com> (Test)
	changes to => [Figure 1]: <http://somesite.com> (Figure 1: Test)		

Command Line Arguments

Specify the source file.

lua xrmd.lua -s myfile.md

An additional optional prefix '-p' argument so that Figure 1 becomes Figure 1.1.

lua xrmd.lua -s myfile.md -p 1

Figure 1 becomes Figure Preamble.1.

lua xrmd.lua -s myfile.md -p Preamble

An additional optional verbose '-v' argument so that the log is printed.

lua xrmd.lua -s myfile.md -p 1 -v

Warning

Currently, I've only implemented fig and tab.