I'm preparing to release Asciidoctor 0.1.2 during the middle of next week (ideally on Tuesday, Apr 23).
== Release focus
The 0.1.2 release is focused on:
* compliance with the AsciiDoc syntax
* conformance with the AsciiDoc HTML and DocBook output
* introducing a default stylesheet
== Key improvements
The improvements that are likely of the most interest are as follows:
docinfo files::
docinfo files are now added to the rendered output (intended to be used to include custom header content)
issues;;
leveloffset::
the leveloffset attribute is now supported (intended for combining several standalone documents together as a master document)
issues;;
partial includes::
the include macro can now include select regions of a file by line numbers, line ranges or tagged regions (unique to Asciidoctor)
issues;;
footnotes in embedded mode::
footnotes are now rendered at the bottom of the rendered output in embedded mode (when the header and footer are disabled, such as on GitHub)
issues;;
email macro::
inline email address and the inline mailto macro are now recognized
issues;;
custom block substitutions::
the substitution groups applied to block content can now be customized
issues;;
masquerading blocks and paragraphs::
the open block and paragraphs can now masquerade as any style of block, and masquerading is implemented for other blocks where applicable (this was one of the weakest areas of Asciidoctor, but is now fully compliant)
issues;;
multiple authors::
it's now possible to specify multiple authors in the header of the document (unique to Asciidoctor)
issues;;
default stylesheet::
a default stylesheet will be shipped with Asciidoctor to give documents a unique, modern and elegant look and feel out of the box
issues;;
In order to implement full support for masquerading blocks and paragraphs and custom block substitutions, the main block parsing code had to be reworked. The refactoring not only cleaned up the code, but laid the foundation needed to implement block filters and other extensions. It also made Asciidoctor even faster, nearing *30 times* as fast as AsciiDoc (measured by rendering the AsciiDoc User Guide).
== Tracking progress
You can track the progress by filtering on the 0.1.2 milestone in the issue tracker:
To see which issues are at the top of the queue, add the next label to the filter:
At the time of writing, the major issues have been tackled and what remains are minor issues and polishing.
To get the release out the door in time, I'm looking for people interested in reviewing the pull requests. Brian Leathem has been a code review machine, having reviewed almost all of the pull requests in this release. By reviewing pull requests, you can start to get familiar with the code, a key step towards becoming a contributor to the core.
== Feedback
If you have feedback or questions about this release, fire away. I'm interested to hear them.
== Final thoughts
The amount of participation in the Asciidoctor project, particularly around the integrations, has increased tremendously since the last release. I'm very grateful to everyone who participates, especially those who contribute and/or spread the word :) Together, we're making documentation easy, fun and rewarding!