Google Docs as GUI: setup

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Louis Maddox edited this page Jun 20, 2016 · 3 revisions

The setup for using Google Docs as a GUI would require server-side activity.

Generate markdown file in the background (wouldn't appear to GUI, thus wouldn't freeze GUI).
Rather than relying on user copy and paste, send it to Drive
- better yet, S3 (or Drive to S3...?)
Provide the generated markdown to the user dynamically (being sent to a given file location set within app locally, or in-browser pane alongside the Docs editor)
Don't think Docs is parsed cleanly enough at present

Need to solve the scaling problem of document parsing

Unsustainable scaling of processing time with document length, lags something awful
perhaps some sort of awareness of prior progress through document would be appropriate. A miniature version control, with server-captured session variables defining which lines were last edited perhaps...?

Misc:

Zapier could play a role in wiring these together: see S3/Drive zaps
Weavr is along the right lines, except for LaTeX, and closed source, and pretty sure it doesn't parse the text (so might just auto-convert to plaintext, which is cheating)