[Geany-devel] A screenplay plugin for geany

[Liviu Andronic]

On Sun, Oct 9, 2011 at 6:54 PM, Anil Gulecha <anil.verve at gmail.com> wrote:
> Commercial editors sell for 100s of dollars, when really a simple text
> editor will do. Infact this format has been used over the past
> century, and most scripts were written on typewriters. yet there does
> not exist a simple and good free screenwriter.
>
> Here's the help I'm looking for from the geany developers.. help write
> a simple plugin that assist with writing .screenplay files. This will
> essentially boil down to defining 6 types of texts (s/a/c/p/d/t), and
> making sure that when new content is added to a dialogue, it wraps at
> the appropriate margins.
>
This sounds like a job for LaTeX (and LyX).

If you look on Wikipedia [1], you will notice that they mention a
LaTeX package called 'screenplay'. I also find a second one on CTAN
[2]. You might want to investigate those and see if they can output
PDF with typesetting that conform to your requirements. If so, then
you will want to investigate writing a corresponding *.layout file for
LyX [3], a cross-platform open-source frontend to LaTeX; this will
enable you to use the LaTeX classes within a familiar, broadly MS
Word-like environment but without the usual bloat.

LyX already ships by default two screenplay LaTeX classes, 'hollywood'
and 'broadway' (and their corresponding *.layout files); they also
come with LyX examples and templates. See [4][5][6][7]. You may also
want to search the LyX wiki [8] for 'screenplay'.

Anyways, I'm confident that what you're looking for is LaTeX (and LyX)
support for writing screenplays, and apparently you already have
several solutions available. Both tools boast a widespread adoption
and are free in most ways. Good luck
Liviu

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenwriting_software
[2] http://ctan.org/search/?search=screenplay&search_type=description
[3] http://www.lyx.org/
[4] http://screenwriting.goeszen.com/free-screenwriting-software.html
[5] https://richardfcrawley.wordpress.com/2007/08/21/lesser-known-applications-for-linux-screenwriting/
[6] http://www.lyx.org/news/20000315.php
[7] http://www.mail-archive.com/lyx-devel@lists.lyx.org/msg09505.html
[8] http://wiki.lyx.org/