#1054001 ITP: libapp-sdview-perl -- terminal document viewer for POD and other syntaxes

Package:
wnpp
Source:
wnpp
Submitter:
Ole Peder Brandtzæg
Date:
2025-11-29 16:53:49 UTC
Severity:
normal
#1054001#5
Date:
2023-10-15 16:01:32 UTC
From:
To:
* Package name    : libapp-sdview-perl
  Version         : 0.13
  Upstream Author : Paul Evans <leonerd@leonerd.org.uk>
* URL             : https://metacpan.org/dist/App-sdview
* License         : Perl 5
  Programming Lang: Perl
  Description     : terminal document viewer for POD and other syntaxes

The App::sdview module implements a terminal-based program for viewing
structured documents. It currently understands POD, some simple Markdown
formatting, and a basic understanding of nroff (for manpages). The
accompanying sdview script runs the App::sdview program, which renders a
structured document to a terminal output, via the less pager.

Why is this package useful/relevant?
====================================

I've found reading the documentation of various Perl modules using
sdview to be a very pleasant experience. Obviously, perldoc already
exists for this purpose, but the syntax highlighting sdview offers makes
for a much better reading experience in my opinion.

As the description notes, the support for manpages is quite rudimentary;
in my testing, the manpage for ls renders fine, whereas the manpage of
man itself does not:

⚘ ~ sdview man
Expected (?^u:\
) in /usr/share/man/man1/man.1.gz on line 1 at:
'\" t
 ^

I'm not sure if the package including such unstable features is a
blocker for packaging it; apologies for the noise if so. However, I
believe its POD support is the main selling point.

How do you plan to maintain it?
===============================

This would be my first Debian package, so I would need a sponsor (and
most likely a bit of mentoring). The Debian Perl Group seems to be a
natural fit for the package, but I would be happy to maintain it on my
own or co-maintain it with them/anyone else.

libapp-sdview-perl does depend on a few other modules (all by the same
upstream author) not presently packaged in Debian, so they would need to
be packaged, too, but I figured I should file this first. They are:

- Object::Pad::FieldAttr::Checked [0]
- Parse::Man [1]
- String::Tagged::Markdown [2]

All the best,
Ole

[0]: https://metacpan.org/dist/Object-Pad-FieldAttr-Checked
[1]: https://metacpan.org/dist/Parse-Man
[2]: https://metacpan.org/dist/String-Tagged-Markdown

#1054001#10
Date:
2023-10-15 16:49:58 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Ole,


I am as well interested in having Parse::Man in Debian. I can help you by
packaging it if you wish.

Best,
Andrius

#1054001#15
Date:
2023-10-15 20:16:48 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Ole,

At 2023-10-15T18:01:32+0200, Ole Peder Brandtzæg wrote:

This should be easy to fix.  The apostrophe is a roff control character,
like the dot.  So anywhere you expect a dot to start a roff control
line, you can validly expect an apostrophe instead.

Strictly, the apostrophe is the default "no-break control character".
But in man pages, it's practically never seen except to express special
comments giving hints to the man(1) program, which is what man's own
man page is doing above.

I'm attaching the gentlest introuction to roff that I have on hand; I
hope it is helpful.  You can of course find much more at groff's
web site.

https://www.gnu.org/software/groff/manual/index.html

I work on groff upstream, so I'm open to any suggestions you have for
improvement of its documentation.

Regards,
Branden

#1054001#20
Date:
2023-10-15 20:36:26 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Andrius;

Wonderful, should I just file another wnpp bug for it?

#1054001#25
Date:
2023-10-15 20:36:25 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Andrius;

Wonderful, should I just file another wnpp bug for it?

#1054001#30
Date:
2023-10-15 20:42:15 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Branden,

Thanks for the explanation and the gentle introduction; I'll peruse the
latter when I have a free moment. I will file a bug upstream and attach
your email; it seems like an issue the author would want to know about.

All the best,
Ole

#1054001#35
Date:
2023-10-15 20:42:15 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Branden,

Thanks for the explanation and the gentle introduction; I'll peruse the
latter when I have a free moment. I will file a bug upstream and attach
your email; it seems like an issue the author would want to know about.

All the best,
Ole

#1054001#40
Date:
2023-10-15 21:31:23 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Ole,

Yes, please. You may put me as the owner of the bug to mark that I take
responsibility for packaging it.

Best,
Andrius

#1054001#45
Date:
2023-10-16 07:25:01 UTC
From:
To:
This should probably be named sdview, as per
https://perl-team.pages.debian.net/policy.html#Package_Naming_Policy

I've also thought about packing it after reading about it :)

Indeed!
Please check out
https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/DebianPerlGroup/Welcome
as a starter


Cheers,
gregor

#1054001#50
Date:
2023-10-16 23:45:06 UTC
From:
To:
Ah, indeed, thanks; will retitle.

=)
link points to https://signup.salsa.debian.org/, which as far as I can
tell is for team creation; https://salsa.debian.org/users/sign_up seems
to take me to the right place.)

#1054001#55
Date:
2023-10-17 00:02:53 UTC
From:
To:
-- 
Ole Peder Brandtzæg | En KLST/ITK-hybrid
Doppler åpnet øynene og så hele fargespekteret for første gang på mange
måneder. Verden hadde farge. Den var rød, den var grønn. Den var roggbif.