Feature: Open new split window to preview side-by-side

[ellisonleao]

From Issue #59 by @DrJackilD

It will be great to have an option when we could open MD file in the new split (or just a new buffer) and observe live changes (not sure if it's doable with Glow tho)

[RaafatTurki]

This would make so much sense. The process of writing markdown is WYSIWYM but often times some extra spacing messes up your doc. Having a split live preview on the side is a definite plus!

I used to use this and have my screen divided 50:50 between my browser and neovim, Moving my neovim to the browser workspace each time I wanted to write a README was annoying.

VSCode also has a similar capability.

[DrJackilD]

So, what can be a feasible approach for that? Open a new split with Glow and reload automatically on save, right? The one problem I see could be an auto-scrolling, to sync the view of the source window and preview, but that's actually is nice-to-have, not an essential feature, imho.

[RaafatTurki]

Auto-scrolling is a separate discussion #79 which will probably get implemented once glow mainstream introduces the ability to focus the rendered view based on markdown line number.

Open a new split with Glow and reload automatically on save, right?

Actually it would be better to reload on text change (TextChanged, TextChangedI)

[ellisonleao]

Going back to this discussion, i was able to start playing around with live updating a buffer with the content. Next step is trying to use the glow command to render the output

glow-live.webm

[jakenvac]

I think you could achieve the rendering using an nvim terminal buffer instead of a text buffer.

[ellisonleao]

@jakeHL yep, the initial tests were just to test the "live reload" feature. Next steps is to put the data in a terminal buffer

[jakenvac]

Not sure if this is helpful, but here's a lua snippet that opens the current buffer via glow in a split terminal buffer.

local function sanitize_shell_string(input)
  local sanitized = input:gsub("'", "'\\''")
  return "'" .. sanitized .. "'"
end

local function markdown()
  local buf = vim.api.nvim_create_buf(false, true)
  
  local current_buf = vim.api.nvim_get_current_buf()
  local current_win = vim.api.nvim_get_current_win()

  local lines = vim.api.nvim_buf_get_lines(current_buf, 0, -1, false)
  local markdown = table.concat(lines, "\n")
  local sanitized = sanitize_shell_string(markdown)
  
  vim.cmd('rightbelow vert sbuffer ' .. buf)
  
  local new_win = vim.api.nvim_get_current_win()
  vim.api.nvim_win_set_option(new_win, 'number', false)
  vim.api.nvim_win_set_option(new_win, 'cursorline', false)
  vim.api.nvim_win_set_option(new_win, 'relativenumber', false)

  vim.fn.termopen("glow <( echo " .. sanitized .. ")\n")
end

vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>m", markdown, {})

[zanglg]

how about this feature? I really like it and was looking forward to.

[zanglg]

All, have a look at markdown-preview.nvim

[qizidog]

good, but no scroll-bind

[GianniBYoung]

Any updates on this feature request?

[wqk151]

Can use this mdpreview.nvim ,support live-updating preview in a vertical split.