Posted by abelsromero on Jan 20, 2020; 3:40pm
URL: https://discuss.asciidoctor.org/Questions-from-a-novice-tp7496p7508.html

Conrad wrote

(1)
"If you want to use Asciidoctorj as a command tool, use cocolatey" -> I use it as CLI but it was sufficient to download asciidoctorj-2.2.0-bin, unpack it und run the bat for each transformation. It run. So where is the disadvantage?

Using chocolately or any other package manager automates things, for instance when there's a new version, you just ask it to update it and that's it....but other than that, it's a matter of taste.

Conrad wrote

(2)
"Asciidoc FX uses asciidoctor.js" -> is that correct?
"That’s why asciidoctor-pdf is not integrated." -> is that correct? Can I integrate a libarry on my own?

Can't confirm, but reading the doucmentation I understand you can generate PDFs. You can try asking directly in the githob repo.

Conrad wrote

(3)
Installing Asciidoctor is difficult for me because of gem and proxies. Can I also download an install ist on my own (like AsciidocctorJ)? If no, why can I just download and run AsciidocctorJ without using gem? My understanding ist that AsciidocctorJ  just runs Asciidoctor as JRuby in a JVM.

AsciidoctorJ contains the minimal required gems inside the jar hiding it's location and loading. Same applies for "asciidoctorj-pdf" and other "asciidoctorj-*" modules.
The goal of the project is using the gem hiding all details.

Conrad wrote

(4)
Is there an advantage using Asciidoctor instead of AsciidocctorJ?

To me, it's really a matter of taste. But there are some things to consider....
Pros for Asciidoctor
- It's the most updated version. But it usually only takes a few days between asciidoctor & asciidoctorj releases.
- It consumes less hardware resouces, if that's important for you.
- Using the core library ensures all work. There's a lot of testing but sometimes (rarely) there are issues on the Java side.
Cons for Asciidoctor
- Harder to install an isolated environment, but can be mitigated with bundle or rvm.
- Can only use Ruby extensions
- Asciidoctorj can be used from maven, gradle and other build tools to easy config