System of a Markdown

markdown logo - m with downward arrow

Uses for markdown

So markdown has appeal, but how to set it up on OSX? setup-1, setup-2, setup-3

1. SublimeText 2(ST2) plugin

Requirements
  1. the Sublimetext 2 text-editor (costs $60)
  2. install the package control plugin into sublimetext2 (free)
  3. use package control to install the markdown-preview plugin (free)

Note: With these plugins (if you are a coder) you can use GitHub’s free markdown rendering API. POST to http://developer.github.com/v3/markdown/ Thus allowing you to see your README.markdown (with emoji) before you commit it, etc.

Just Make sure to set the parser to github. ST2 preview markdown plugin screenshot1 ST2 preview markdown plugin screenshot1

2. The Old ST2 Build System: My old way from sublimetext2 (still good for emails and such)

Requirements
  1. the sublime text 2 text-editor
  2. install the multi-markdown software (an executable named either mmd.exe or mmd)
  3. the software on your PATH environment variable
mmd.exe on your PATH for Windows7
mmd on your PATH for OSX
  1. a sublimetext2 build system

Install The Multi-markdown Software:

Installing the software for turning a input.markdown source file into output.html

Windows: https://github.com/fletcher/peg-multimarkdown/downloads OSX: I used brew install mmd see homebrew

The Sublime Text 2 Build System

Save the following Markdown.sublime-build file to your User folder in Packages.

On Windows 7:

'C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Sublime Text 2\Packages\User\'

On OSX:

/usr/Users/andxyz/Library/Application\ Support/Sublime\ Text\ 2/Packages/User/

Open a Markdown file (with *.md file extension) and hit F7. It will make the filename.html and show the file in the browser

Markdown.sublime-build (Windows7):

{
  "shell": "true",
  "cmd": ["pandoc.exe", "--to=html", "--output=$file.html", "$file", "&", "C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe","$file.html"],
  "selector": "source.md"
}

Markdown.sublime-build (OSX):

{
  "shell": "true",
  "cmd": ["/usr/local/bin/mmd \"$file\"; /usr/bin/open \"$file_path/$file_base_name.html\"", "&", "open", "-a", "Google Chrome", "$file.html"],
  "selector": "source.md"
}

3. Github Flavored Markdown(gfm) in Ruby

  • Redcarpet2, I use redcarpet2 for my octopress blog andxyz.com 
    # Andxyz uses the redcarpet2 plugin so we can have "github flavored markdown"
# https://github.com/nono/Jekyll-plugins/blob/master/redcarpet2_markdown.rb
# required reading http://github.github.com/github-flavored-markdown/
# for redcarpet2 options see https://github.com/vmg/redcarpet#readme
markdown: redcarpet2 # markdown: rdiscount
redcarpet:
extensions: ["hard_wrap", "no_intra_emphasis", "fenced_code_blocks", "autolink", "strikethrough", "superscript", "with_toc_data", "tables", "lax_spacing"]
  • Github says they use this ruby code I don’t really believe them, I think they are in c code now, they convert so much markdown it became a pain-point.
require 'digest/md5'

def gfm(text)
  # Extract pre blocks
  extractions = {}
  text.gsub!(%r{<pre>.*?</pre>}m) do |match|
    md5 = Digest::MD5.hexdigest(match)
    extractions[md5] = match
    "{gfm-extraction-#{md5}}"
  end

  # prevent foo_bar_baz from ending up with an italic word in the middle
  text.gsub!(/(^(?! {4}|\t)\w+_\w+_\w[\w_]*)/) do |x|
    x.gsub('_', '\_') if x.split('').sort.to_s[0..1] == '__'
  end

  # in very clear cases, let newlines become <br /> tags
  text.gsub!(/^[\w\<][^\n]*\n+/) do |x|
    x =~ /\n{2}/ ? x : (x.strip!; x << "  \n")
  end

  # Insert pre block extractions
  text.gsub!(/\{gfm-extraction-([0-9a-f]{32})\}/) do
    "\n\n" + extractions[$1]
  end

  text
end

Research list:

Another handy way to do it: http://brettterpstra.com/easy-command-line-github-flavored-markdown/

Markdown as a Writer (think screenplays):
  • http://doingthatwrong.com/home/2012/3/6/multimarkdown-build-systems-for-sublime-text-2.html Inspiration for this post
  • http://www.davidwain.com/blog/
  • http://brettterpstra.com/why-markdown-a-two-minute-explanation/ (This man sells a markdown app if you are into that. He also has free markdown and web-writing tools)
  • http://5by5.tv/systematic/20 - the show notes & links are key
  • http://johnaugust.com/apps about
  • http://www.candlerblog.com/projects/ about
  • http://quoteunquoteapps.com/highland/
Markdown as a Coder (think programmer/developer)
  • http://www.rumproarious.com/2012/10/29/going-long-on-markdown/
  • http://brettterpstra.com/
  • http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/10/the-future-of-markdown.html
  • http://www.rumproarious.com/2012/10/29/markdown-the-spec/
  • http://fletcherpenney.net/multimarkdown/
  • http://github.github.com/github-flavored-markdown/
special thanks to

the markdown logo creator dcurtis

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