Follow markdownlint rules

[Ndpnt]

Hi,

Thanks for this useful tool to generate changelog.

Could you modify the generated markdown to follow the rules defined by markdownlint to enforce consistency in Markdown files.

Currently the two rules that are not respected are:

• Lists should be surrounded by blank lines
• Headings should be surrounded by blank lines

[MattiSG]

@oscarotero this issue seems to encompass #27 and #22. We @OpenTermsArchive are considering implementing it. Would you welcome such a PR? 🙂 I see you already have two pending PRs and we are wondering what's your level of maintenance of this open-source library, to understand if we should contribute (preferred) or fork.

[oscarotero]

Hi, @Ndpnt and @MattiSG

Thanks for your contribution. Yes, this project is actively maintained.

I can see the benefits of following the markdownlint rules, but I'd like have it as an optional feature. There are many people that prefer the original compact version. What do you think about something like this?:

const string = changelog.toString({ markdownlint: true });

[Ndpnt]

Hi @oscarotero and thanks for the quick response.

It's a good idea to have an option to pass to the toString method but I think it might be better to have a linted output by default and pass an option for those who prefer the compact version:

const string = changelog.toString({ compact: true });

This way, by default it enforces standards and consistency in changelogs files spread across repositories.

[oscarotero]

The problem with this is it will change all existing markdowns and force to people already using this library to configure it to back to the expected compact version.
It would be a breaking change, so maybe in the future 3.x version this can be enabled by default, but for now I think it would be nice to have this option disabled to release the version 2.2.0.

[Ndpnt]

Ok, I understand the problem. So, what about releasing now a major version with this improvement?

[oscarotero]

I'd like to have it also in 2.x version, but as a configurable option.

If you don't want to configure the library, another option is a static property, like Changelog.format = "markdownlint", so it's set once and applied always.

[Ndpnt]

I was just in favor of enforcing standards by default but It's OK to configure the library.
I think it's best to have both options: a toString method option and also a static property.

[oscarotero]

Ok, thanks for understanding!

For clarifying, are you going to modify the PR to include these options?

[Ndpnt]

I'm not really familiar with your codebase and I think it will be much easier and quicker for you to make the changes and to create the associated documentation, so I'd really appreciate it if you could handle the changes, if not I will.

[oscarotero]

Okay, no problem. I'll work on that

[Ndpnt]

Thanks! 🙏

[oscarotero]

Done. I've released 2.2.0 with the format option.

[janhalama]

Done. I've released 2.2.0 with the format option.

Thanks for the release, can you also publish it on npm registry. It is not published yet: https://www.npmjs.com/package/keep-a-changelog

[oscarotero]

Ops, sorry. I thought it was published automatically.
Done!