Rewrite idnits as a JS library + CLI

[NGPixel]

This proposal is for a rewrite of idnits in javascript, so that it can run both natively in the browser and on the server / console.

General Implementation

• Implemented as a ESM library, exposing a single async function checkNits(opts), that resolves to a result object.
• A separate cli.js parses command line arguments, calls the library and output the results in a console friendly format.
• Section texts should be stored in a separate .json file.

Distribution

As a NPM package that can be both embedded into a web application or used as a standard CLI, on any platform supported by Node.js.

Arguments

Outdated

CLI mode	Library mode	Description
--version	N/A	Print the version and exit
--help	N/A	Print the help text and exit
--nowarn	nowarn: false	Don't issue warnings, only ID-Checklist violations
--verbose	N/A	Show more information about offending lines
--nitcount	N/A	Show a count of nits
--debug	N/A	Debug output, especially of boilerplate matching
--year	year: 2023	Expect the given year in the boilerplate
--checklistwarn	N/A	Only warn (no errors) for ID-Checklist violations
--nonascii	noascii: false	Disable warnings for non-ascii characters
--submitcheck	submitcheck: false	Only output errors and warnings related to 1id-guidelines
--status doctype	status: 'doctype'	Assume the given intended document type

See README.md instead.

Returns

{
  result: string, // either "success" or "failed"
  file: {
    path: string, // Path of the document
    lines: Number, // Number of total lines processed
    size: Number // filesize in bytes
  },
  issues: [
    {
      lines: Array<Number>, // start and end line number (starts at 1), e.g. [1,5]
      message: string, // error message
      ref: string, // optional link reference
      level: string // either "warn" or "error"
    },
    ...
  ]
}

Web UI Mockup

The library could be integrated into a web app, allowing the user to browse for a document to validate. The document would be presented in a code editor like view, with warnings / errors shown on relevant lines (either inline or on the side).

Breakdown of the Current Implementation

1. starts at L3053
2. calls check_line()
   1. check line length
   2. check line spacing
   3. check line ending with hyphenated word
   4. check ascii chars only and not ctrl chars
   5. check that abstract and "status of memo" are not numbered
   6. check RFC 2119 language
   7. check example domain names
   8. check ipv4 addresses
3. calculate page count
4. warn if draft starts with PK or BM
5. normalize text and try a list of matches
   1. calls match_para()
6. calls report()
   1. todo

Original idnits SOW

idnits-SOW-00.pdf