101 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
101 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
# transcript browser
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This project started as a **transcript browser** for subtitle/text files and later diverged into an attempt to index and search PDF content. The transcript side is the core that works best right now; PDF support exists but is still rough.
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## Current status
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- Personal/experimental codebase, now being published as part of a project archive.
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- Primary value: fast local search across subtitle/text-like files with quick jump-to-source actions.
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- PDF indexing was added later and is incomplete.
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- Build setup works, but is currently clunky and hard to follow.
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## What the app does
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- Loads files from a folder (`.srt`, `.txt`, `.html`, `.pdf`).
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- Indexes file content into memory.
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- Lets you search from a single query box.
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- Shows matching snippets.
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- Opens results in external tools:
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- `.srt` -> media player at subtitle timestamp
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- `.txt`/`.html` -> text editor
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- `.pdf` -> PDF viewer at page
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## What is not great yet
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- **PDF parsing quality:** extraction is token-based and does not robustly handle Unicode/text layout.
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- **Build system readability:** custom two-stage build flow with many hardcoded source/library entries.
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- **Platform assumptions:** strongly Windows-oriented defaults (paths, commands, Win32 backend).
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- **Some UX/engineering TODOs remain:** error handling and configuration polish are still in progress.
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## Repository map (excluding external modules)
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- `build.bat` - bootstrap script for the custom build tool.
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- `build_file.cpp` - project-specific build recipe (compiles app and dependency objects).
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- `src/transcript_browser/main.cpp` - UI/event loop and app entry point.
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- `src/transcript_browser/loading_thread.cpp` - folder scanning + parsing jobs.
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- `src/transcript_browser/searching_thread.cpp` - asynchronous query matching.
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- `src/transcript_browser/read_srt.cpp` - SRT parsing.
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- `src/transcript_browser/read_pdf.cpp` - PDF text extraction attempt.
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- `src/transcript_browser/config.cpp` - config parsing/serialization and launch commands.
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- `src/basic/` - shared utilities (arena, arrays, filesystem/process/thread helpers).
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- `src/build_tool/` - custom build tool sources.
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## Build and run (current flow)
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This project currently expects a Windows + MSVC environment.
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1. Open a Developer Command Prompt (so `cl.exe` is available).
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2. From repo root, run:
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```bat
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build.bat
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```
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3. Run the built executable from `build/`:
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```bat
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build\transcript_browser.exe
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```
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Notes:
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- `build.bat` first builds `build/build_tool.exe` (if missing), then executes it.
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- The build tool compiles and runs `build_file.cpp` to produce `transcript_browser.exe`.
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- Build outputs and object files are placed in `build/`.
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## Runtime usage
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- Start the app.
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- In the input field, load a folder with:
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```text
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read=C:/path/to/folder
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```
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- Press Enter to enqueue parsing.
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- Type any query to search loaded content.
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- Use:
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- `F1` to toggle loaded files view
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- `F2` to edit config commands
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## Configuration
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The app stores config next to the executable as `transcript_browser.config`.
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Keys:
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- `SRTCommand`
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- `PDFCommand`
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- `TXTCommand`
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- `ReadOnStart`
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Supported placeholders used in commands include:
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- `{video}`
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- `{time_in_seconds}`
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- `{file}`
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- `{page}`
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- `{line}`
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If a path contains spaces, wrap it in quotes.
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