Documenter usage

To use Asciicast with documenter, the asciinema-player javascript and CSS assets must be provided to Documenter in makedocs in your docs/make.jl file.

This can be done using the Asciicast.assets function, e.g.

makedocs(;
    # ...
    format=Documenter.HTML(;
        assets=Asciicast.assets(),
        # ...
    ),
)

Besides that, the only other requirement is to load Asciicast in your make.jl (using Asciicast).

@cast blocks

Asciicast.jl works as a Documenter plugin, providing @cast blocks which work similarly to @repl blocks. For example:

```@cast
using Pkg
Pkg.status()
1 + 1
```

The above @cast block will effectively generate both a standard Documenter @repl block:

```@repl
using Pkg
Pkg.status()
1 + 1
```

and some raw HTML output:

<div id="d59ee38d-184a-4888-8749-41b4df76ae3b"></div>
<script>
AsciinemaPlayer.create(
'data:text/plain;base64,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',
document.getElementById('d59ee38d-184a-4888-8749-41b4df76ae3b'), { autoPlay: true, fit: false}
);
</script>

Here, the id is randomly generated with uuid4(), and the contents of the cast itself are base64-encoded and inlined into the HTML. Note: I initially tried saving these as separate files, but had trouble with casts not showing up on deployed pages, while inlining works reliably every time.

The output of this looks like:

julia> using Pkg
julia> Pkg.status()
julia> 1 + 12

Hiding REPL inputs

You can also use hide_inputs=true to hide the inputs, showing just the asciinema player. The syntax for that is:

```@cast; hide_inputs=true
using Pkg
Pkg.status()
1 + 1
```

This looks like:

Exceptions

Unlike in @repl blocks, exceptions are not allowed by default. Instead, they must be opt-ed in with allow_errors=true

```@cast; allow_errors=true
error("This is an exception!")
```

This looks like:

julia> error("This is an exception!")ERROR: This is an exception!

Example with a named block

First block:

```@cast 1; hide_inputs=true
x = -1
x*x
```

The next block continues:

```@cast 1; hide_inputs=true, allow_errors=true
y = x+1
sqrt(x)
```

Then we move to a REPL block:

```@repl 1
@show y
z = y^2
```
julia> @show yy = 0
0
julia> z = y^20

Modifying the delay

Delay of 0:

```@cast; delay=0, hide_inputs=true
1
2
3
```

Delay of 1:

```@cast; delay=1, hide_inputs=true
1
2
3
```

All supported options in @cast Documenter blocks

  • hide_inputs::Bool=false. Whether or not to hide the @repl-style inputs before the animated gif.
  • allow_errors::Bool=false. Whether or not the Documenter build should fail if exceptions are encountered during execution of the @cast block.
  • delay::Float64=0.25. The amount of delay between line executions (to emulate typing time).
  • loop::Union{Int,Bool}=false. Set to true for infinite looping, or an integer to loop a fixed number of times.
  • height::Int. Heuristically determined by default. Set to an integer to specify the number of lines.

Reference docs

Asciicast.assetsFunction
Asciicast.assets(asciinema_version = "3.6.3")

Provides a collection of Documenter assets which can be used in makedocs, e.g. makedocs(; assets=Asciicast.assets()).

source