transcript browser

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.

Current status

• Personal/experimental codebase, now being published as part of a project archive.
• Primary value: fast local search across subtitle/text-like files with quick jump-to-source actions.
• PDF indexing was added later and is incomplete.
• Build setup works, but is currently clunky and hard to follow.

What the app does

• Loads files from a folder (.srt, .txt, .html, .pdf).
• Indexes file content into memory.
• Lets you search from a single query box.
• Shows matching snippets.
• Opens results in external tools:
  • .srt -> media player at subtitle timestamp
  • .txt/.html -> text editor
  • .pdf -> PDF viewer at page

What is not great yet

• PDF parsing quality: extraction is token-based and does not robustly handle Unicode/text layout.
• Build system readability: custom two-stage build flow with many hardcoded source/library entries.
• Platform assumptions: strongly Windows-oriented defaults (paths, commands, Win32 backend).
• Some UX/engineering TODOs remain: error handling and configuration polish are still in progress.

Repository map (excluding external modules)

• build.bat - bootstrap script for the custom build tool.
• build_file.cpp - project-specific build recipe (compiles app and dependency objects).
• src/transcript_browser/main.cpp - UI/event loop and app entry point.
• src/transcript_browser/loading_thread.cpp - folder scanning + parsing jobs.
• src/transcript_browser/searching_thread.cpp - asynchronous query matching.
• src/transcript_browser/read_srt.cpp - SRT parsing.
• src/transcript_browser/read_pdf.cpp - PDF text extraction attempt.
• src/transcript_browser/config.cpp - config parsing/serialization and launch commands.
• src/basic/ - shared utilities (arena, arrays, filesystem/process/thread helpers).
• src/build_tool/ - custom build tool sources.

Build and run (current flow)

This project currently expects a Windows + MSVC environment.

1. Open a Developer Command Prompt (so cl.exe is available).
2. From repo root, run:

build.bat

3. Run the built executable from build/:

build\transcript_browser.exe

Notes:

• build.bat first builds build/build_tool.exe (if missing), then executes it.
• The build tool compiles and runs build_file.cpp to produce transcript_browser.exe.
• Build outputs and object files are placed in build/.

Runtime usage

• Start the app.
• In the input field, load a folder with:

read=C:/path/to/folder

• Press Enter to enqueue parsing.
• Type any query to search loaded content.
• Use:
  • F1 to toggle loaded files view
  • F2 to edit config commands

Configuration

The app stores config next to the executable as transcript_browser.config.

Keys:

• SRTCommand
• PDFCommand
• TXTCommand
• ReadOnStart

Supported placeholders used in commands include:

• {video}
• {time_in_seconds}
• {file}
• {page}
• {line}

If a path contains spaces, wrap it in quotes.