Enhancing Code Snippets With Display: None & Data-Hidden

Hey there, fellow web enthusiasts! Ever found yourself wanting more control over how hidden lines in your code snippets are displayed? Specifically, when using tools like Zola with the hide_lines annotation in markdown? Currently, these lines simply vanish. I'm proposing a neat little enhancement: instead of disappearing entirely, let's hide them with display: none and add a data-hidden attribute. This subtle change unlocks a world of customization, allowing you to style those hidden sections and provide visual cues to your readers. Let's dive into why this is a cool idea and how it can improve your markdown code snippets.

The Current State of Affairs: Lines Gone Missing

So, imagine you're using Zola (or a similar tool) and you've got a code snippet you want to share. You use the hide_lines annotation to, well, hide certain lines. Currently, these lines are completely omitted from the rendered output. They're as if they never existed. While this achieves the basic goal of hiding the lines, it also removes any possibility of indicating that something was there. There's no hint, no visual cue that code has been redacted. This can be a bit confusing for readers. They might not immediately realize that lines have been hidden, which can hinder understanding, especially if the hidden lines are crucial for context. The current approach lacks the flexibility to highlight the elision or to signal that something has been intentionally omitted from the code presented. This is where the proposed solution shines.

Let's get into a bit of detail on how this can be implemented in a simple example using TOML file. For example:

# example.toml
[package]
name = "my-project"
version = "0.1.0"
authors = ["Your Name"] 

[dependencies]
# Some Dependencies, from line 10 to 15
serde = { version = "1.0", features = ["derive"] }
serde_json = "1.0" # line 11

# More dependencies... # lines 12

# And more dependencies... # lines 13

# And even more dependencies... # lines 14

# So many dependencies... # lines 15

# The rest of the project

Now, let's say we want to hide lines 10 through 15. The current hide_lines functionality would simply remove those lines, and the rendered output would look something like this (without the line numbers):

[package]
name = "my-project"
version = "0.1.0"
authors = ["Your Name"]

[dependencies]
# The rest of the project

As you can see, lines 10-15 are completely gone. There's no indication that they were ever there. This is where the proposed changes come into play, offering a superior alternative.

Introducing display: none and data-hidden: A Powerful Combination

With the proposed change, the hidden lines would still be present in the HTML, but they'd be hidden from view using display: none. Additionally, each of these hidden lines would get a data-hidden attribute. This is where the magic happens! This approach offers incredible flexibility for styling. You can now target those hidden lines with CSS and control how they're displayed. Imagine this:

Instead of completely disappearing, the hidden lines would be rendered in the HTML, but styled with display: none. Each of these hidden lines would also get a data-hidden attribute. For example, lines 10-15 in the example.toml file would be rendered something like this (hypothetically):

<pre><code class="language-toml">
<span class="line">[package]</span>
<span class="line">name = "my-project"</span>
<span class="line">version = "0.1.0"</span>
<span class="line">authors = ["Your Name"]</span>

<span class="line">[dependencies]</span>
<span class="line" data-hidden="true" style="display: none;">serde = { version = "1.0", features = ["derive"] }</span>
<span class="line" data-hidden="true" style="display: none;">serde_json = "1.0"</span>
<span class="line" data-hidden="true" style="display: none;"></span>
<span class="line" data-hidden="true" style="display: none;"></span>
<span class="line" data-hidden="true" style="display: none;"></span>
<span class="line" data-hidden="true" style="display: none;"></span>
<span class="line"># The rest of the project</span>
</code></pre>

See those lines with data-hidden="true" and style="display: none;"? That's the key. Now, you can use CSS to style these hidden lines. For instance, you could add a visual cue indicating that the code has been redacted. With a little CSS, you could easily transform those hidden lines into something like this:

.line[data-hidden="true"]::before {
  content: "[...elided...] ";
  color: #888;
  font-style: italic;
}

This would add a little "[...elided...]" before each hidden line, giving your readers a clear indication that something has been hidden. Or, you could use a different approach altogether. Maybe you want to show a small icon or a different background color for the hidden lines. The possibilities are endless!

Styling Possibilities: Unleashing Your Creativity

The real power of this approach lies in the styling possibilities. With the data-hidden attribute, you have complete control over how the hidden lines are presented. Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

• Elided Indicator: As shown in the previous example, you could add text like "[...elided...]" or "// Hidden code" to clearly indicate that lines have been removed. This immediately informs the reader that something is intentionally omitted.
• Visual Separators: Use CSS to add a visual separator, such as a horizontal line or a different background color, to demarcate the hidden sections. This helps in visually structuring the code and clearly highlighting the parts that have been hidden. This could be particularly helpful if a significant amount of the code is hidden.
• Toggle to Show: Implement a toggle or a button that allows readers to reveal the hidden lines. This gives the reader the option to view the omitted code, providing more context or detail when they need it. This can be achieved using JavaScript and CSS, making the hidden code interactive.
• Highlighting: Highlight the lines above and below the hidden section to emphasize the context. This helps the reader understand the significance of the hidden code in relation to the visible parts of the snippet.
• Custom Tooltips: Display a tooltip on hover that provides a brief description of what's been hidden. For instance, if you're hiding sensitive information, the tooltip could say "Credentials hidden for security." This adds an extra layer of clarity.
• Animated Transitions: Use CSS transitions or animations to reveal the hidden lines in a more engaging way. This adds a subtle flair to the code snippets and improves the overall user experience.
• Adaptability to Themes: Ensure that any styling you apply adapts well to different themes. Using CSS variables to control the colors and styles ensures a consistent and visually pleasing experience regardless of the user's chosen theme.

These are just a few ideas to spark your imagination. The possibilities are genuinely limited only by your creativity. By utilizing the display: none and data-hidden attributes, you can drastically improve the readability and user experience of your markdown code snippets.

Benefits of the Proposed Approach

Let's summarize the key benefits of this approach:

• Enhanced Readability: Provides clear visual cues that lines have been hidden. This is much better than having lines disappear without any indication.
• Improved User Experience: Allows for interactive elements like tooltips or toggles, making the code snippets more engaging.
• Increased Flexibility: Offers a wide range of styling options, enabling you to customize the appearance of hidden lines to match your needs.
• Better Communication: Clearly communicates to readers that parts of the code have been hidden, which helps to avoid confusion.
• SEO Improvement: Search engines can crawl all the content. Content is more easily indexed, especially when there are toggle features.
• Maintainability: Any styling applied is self-contained within the CSS. No need to modify the original markdown files to indicate the hidden sections.

Implementation Considerations

Implementing this change would be relatively straightforward. The core idea is to modify the rendering process of the markdown parser (e.g., in Zola) to include the display: none style and the data-hidden attribute when the hide_lines annotation is used. Here's a simplified outline:

1. Modify the Parser: The code that handles the hide_lines annotation needs to be updated. Instead of completely removing the lines, it should add the data-hidden attribute and the style="display: none;" attribute to the corresponding HTML elements (likely <span> elements within a <pre><code> block).
2. Add CSS Styles: Provide default CSS styles to handle the data-hidden attribute. This could be a simple style that adds the "[...elided...]" text or any other visual cue.
3. Testing: Thoroughly test the changes to ensure that hidden lines are correctly styled and that the existing functionality is not broken.
4. Documentation: Update the documentation to explain how to use the new features and the available styling options.

The implementation would not be overly complex, and the benefits in terms of user experience and flexibility are significant. The changes would allow for a much more polished and user-friendly presentation of code snippets. This could also be extended to allow for other annotations, like "highlight_lines", to easily highlight certain lines of code.

Conclusion: A Step Towards Better Code Snippets

In conclusion, adding display: none and the data-hidden attribute to hidden lines in markdown code snippets is a simple yet powerful enhancement. It provides significant advantages in terms of readability, user experience, and customization. By implementing this change, we can make our code snippets more informative and engaging, ultimately improving the experience for our readers. This seemingly small change opens doors to an array of creative styling options, making code snippets more informative and aesthetically pleasing. I hope this proposal sparks some discussion and, ultimately, leads to an improvement in the way we display and interact with hidden code in our markdown documents!

If you're interested in learning more about styling HTML elements and customizing your web pages, I recommend checking out the MDN Web Docs. They have comprehensive documentation on HTML and CSS. Or explore more about markdown CommonMark.