This is an attempt to modernise TiddlyWiki's build system, which has been based on tools written in Ruby called Cook and Ginsu (see https://github.com/TiddlyWiki/cooker for details). They were first written in 2006 and have been heavily hacked since then.
This new version is written in JavaScript for node.js, with the intention that it can share code with TiddlyWiki itself.
The goal is to achieve byte-for-byte compatibility with the old tools, but only to support the features required by the recipe files that are currently in use by TiddlyWiki and TiddlySpace. One of the difficulties is that cook.rb is very buggy; the current build process for tiddlywiki.com relies on TiddlyWiki itself doing a save operation in the browser to clear up problems with duplicate tiddlers and badly formed attributes.
Tiddlers can be read from `.tid`, `.tiddler` or TiddlyWeb-style fat `.json' files.
You can use filepaths or URLs to reference recipe files and tiddlers. For example, this recipe cooks the latest TiddlyWiki components directly from the online repositories:
`test.sh` contains a simple test that cooks the main tiddlywiki.com recipe and compares it with the results of the old build process (ie, running cook.rb and then opening the file in a browser and performing a 'save changes' operation).
As of 2nd December 2011, cook.js can now build a fully functional TiddlyWiki from the existing recipe files. There are two or three minor whitespace issues that prevent full byte-for-byte compatibility.
There is now an experimental new command line interface that combines `cook.js`, `ginsu.js` and `server.js`, provisionally called `tiddlywiki.js`. It is used as follows:
The command line options are processed in sequential order from left to right. Processing pauses during long operations, like loading a recipe file and all the subrecipes and tiddlers that it references. The following options are available:
`--servewiki` and `--servertiddlers` are for different purposes and should not be used together. The former is for TiddlyWiki core developers who want to be able to edit the TiddlyWiki source files in a text editor and view the results in the browser by clicking refresh; it is slow because it reloads all the TiddlyWiki JavaScript files each time the page is loaded. The latter is for experimenting with the new wikification engine.