I am doing a swap as well, not simple though. A buddy of mine is giving me a really nice 89 Carat he has owned since new with an 8V with a blown head. I am putting a TDI-M In it. I think it's got a 2Y tranny which should be fine for a TDI swap but, maybe I'll try to find a 4S, or an A3 TDI Trans but, i don't know if I want to do the Hydraulic clutch swap.
Diesel to gas swap can be done simply, just as everyone stated, the thread burn_your_money linked pretty much covers it.
I am taking the more complicated route, I want to swap it over to true diesel stuff. I am going to swap out the CE1 Digi harness with a CE2 Diesel Harness.
burn_your_money has hooked me up with just about all the A2 diesel stuff I need. The complete CE2 Harness, a CE2 Diesel gauge cluster with tach, TD Air box and plumbing, Fuel Tank Sender, and an AAZ Injection Pump. It started arriving last week.
I will get a diesel tank locally, and I still need to chase down a 1Z or AHU engine, an A2 GTD Intercooler Setup, Intercooled AAZ Intake manifold, AAZ Exhaust manifold, K14 turbo, and down pipe.
It'll be more work and take more time but, I plan on keeping the Jetta until I die, so it's worth it. The car has been sitting in his garage for 3 years now so it will have to be gone through anyway, brakes, suspension, etc. Might as well make it as factory as possible while I am at it. So after all that time I'll have a fairly "new" car for about $5,000 I figure.
I plan on using all the TDI engine accessories when I put the engine in, that'll take some adapting of the A/C hoses and changing out of the A2 A/C stuff to R134 but, again shouldn't be too tough.
The GM Controllers are pretty easy to hookup, below is a diagram I had for putting the later GM type into my 79 Chevy Olds Diesel, 8 cylinders but same Idea for 4, it's enough to get you started.

The GM 60G Glow Plugs are self limiting and can be used with this controller if you add a 1K Ohm resistor to the wire from "C" on the controller to the glow plugs, so that being the case should be true for VW self limiting plugs as well.
Get a Bentley for sure, the wiring diagrams are great and really detailed. Keep us posted.