Markdown

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** Table of Contents **
<<toc>>

** What is markdown? **
'''[http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/%|%Markdown]''' is a
[lightweight markup languages%|%lightweight markup language], supposed to be pleasantly to write and read by humans


** Description **

Originally created by John Gruber and Aaron Swartz in 2004, Markdown allows people "to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid [XHTML] or [HTML].  It is used to make the sources of static web pages more human readable, and it is also more pleasant to write in than [HTML].  It is used as a markup language, for example at:
   * [http://www.stackoverflow.com%|%StackOverflow]
   * [https://www.github.com%|%GitHub], a [git] repository host with additional functionality such as issues, discussions on pull requests, wiki, Actions, automatic builds and much more. IT uses its own markdown variant: [https://help.github.com/articles/github-flavored-markdown/%|%GFM]
   * [https:://gitlab.com%|%GitLab], another git repository hosting service
   * [fossil], a distributed SCM
   * [https://www.devontechnologies.com/apps/devonthink%|%DEVONthink], a knowledge database software for documents
   * [https://dayoneapp.com%|%OneDay], a diary software
   * [https://culturedcode.com%|%Things], a todo software
   * [https://jupyter.org%|%Jupyter Notebook], an application for writing documents combining live-code with text etc.
   * [ruff], [mkdoc::mkdoc], [tmdoc::tmdoc], Tcl packages for source code documentation (and literate programming)
   * [mkdic]
   * [https://rmarkdown.rstudio.com%|%RMarkdown], mixing markdown and [R] code in a kind of [literate programming]
   * ...

** Variants **

The original markdown specification from 2004 is only loosely defined. The [commonmark] specification is a strict definition of how to format a document using markdown. Besides this, many variants of markdown have evolved, each typically adding some features not included in the original. For example:

   * [https://help.github.com/articles/github-flavored-markdown/%|%GFM] = Github-flavoured markdown
   * [MultiMarkdown]
   * [pandoc]'s markdown
   * [https://michelf.ca/projects/php-markdown/extra/%|%Markdown Extra (PHP markdown)]
   * [https://kramdown.gettalong.org%|%Kramdown]
   * [https://github.com/vimtaai/extramark%|%Extramark]
   * [CommonMark]
   * [https://github.com/bhollis/maruku%|%Maruku]
   * [https://casual-effects.com/markdeep/%|%Markdeep]
   * ...

If you want to compare some variants and test whether they support some syntax, go to [https://babelmark.github.io%|%babelmark3]

** Markup languages similar to Markdown **

   * [http://txt2tags.org/%|%txt2tags], implemented in Python, and supports output to HTML, XHTML, SGML, DocBook, LaTeX, Lout, Man page, Creole, Wikipedia/MediaWiki, Google Code Wiki, PmWiki, DokuWiki, MoinMoin, MagicPoint, PageMaker, AsciiDoc, ASCII Art, Plain text ([HJG], 2013-09-22)
   * [https://asciidoc.org%|%AsciiDoc] with [https://asciidoctor.org%|%Asciidoctor]
   * [http://www.wikicreole.org%|%Creole]
   * [https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/usage/restructuredtext/index.html%|%reStructuedText], the Python Documentation Generator]
   * [https://textile-lang.com%|%Textile]
   * ...

** Tools **
   * [Caius] (unmaintained, superseded by its fork in Tcllib):   The CAIUS project has a pure Tcl package for processing Markdown.
   * [CommonMark]:   A standardized version of Markdown. Also with Tcl bindings.
   * [cmark]:   Tcl wrapper for CommonMark.
   * [jimsoldout], [TclSoldout]:   Jim, Tcl bindings to libsoldout.
   * [Markdown2Go]:   Tcl/Tk application with the markdown converter (ported from Perl to tcl) together with the Caius extension (support for html tables).
   * [shtmlview] : Pure Tcl/Tk solution to display HTML and, via [Tcllib]'s Markdown library, of Markdown in a Tk text widget.
   * [tclhoedown]:   Tcl wrapper around Hoedown, a Markdown processor forked from Sundown (Sundown is no longer maintained).
   * [Tcllib]:   Version 1.18 has a markdown module derived from tcl-markdown on github [https://github.com/wduquette/tcl-markdown].
   * [Tclssg]:   Contains its own fork of the Caius Markdown package with bugfixes and an option to not convert tabs to spaces.
   * [TclSundown] (unmaintained):   Tcl wrapper around Sundown, a Markdown processor ([AK], Nov 9, 2014: I have a copy of Jeremy's Fossil repository. If anybody is interested I can put it up somewhere).
   [CommonMark]:   A standardized version of Markdown. Also with Tcl bindings.

   [cmark]:   Tcl wrapper for CommonMark.

   [jimsoldout], [TclSoldout]:   Jim, Tcl bindings to libsoldout.

   [Markdown2Go]:   Tcl/Tk application with the markdown converter (ported from Perl to tcl) together with the Caius extension (support for html tables).

   [shtmlview] : Pure Tcl/Tk solution to display HTML and, via [Tcllib]'s Markdown library, of Markdown in a Tk text widget.

   [tclhoedown]:   Tcl wrapper around Hoedown, a Markdown processor forked from Sundown (Sundown is no longer maintained).

   [Tcllib]:   Version 1.18 has a markdown module derived from tcl-markdown on github [https://github.com/wduquette/tcl-markdown].

   [Tclssg]:   Contains its own fork of the Caius Markdown package with bugfixes and an option to not convert tabs to spaces.

   [TclSundown] (unmaintained):   Tcl wrapper around Sundown, a Markdown processor ([AK], Nov 9, 2014: I have a copy of Jeremy's Fossil repository. If anybody is interested I can put it up somewhere).

** Applications **


'''[JOB] - 2016-06-15 17:21:53'''

Utility script to convert all markup files in the current directory:

Prerequisites:

   * Perl must be installed on your machine,
   * markdown.pl again needs some more packages: html, json,...

======
package require Tk
catch {console show}

# convert to html using markdown

set dir [file dirname [info script]]

set mdcmd [file join $dir "util/Markdown.pl"]
set pattern "*.text"
set ext ".html"

# fix the directory name (required for glob under windows) ...
set basedir [string trimright [file join [file normalize $dir] { }]]

# execute markdown...

foreach f [glob -nocomplain -type {f r} -path $basedir $pattern] {

        # change file extension:
        set htmlfile [file rootname $f]
        append htmlfile $ext
        
        # puts "exec perl $mdcmd --html4tags $f > $htmlfile"
        eval exec perl $mdcmd --html4tags $f > $htmlfile &
}

# e.g. loading the browser...
set current_file [file join $dir "testfile.html"]
set command [list {*}[auto_execok start] {}]
exec {*}$command chrome $current_file &
puts "Done"
exit 0

======

The above script can be replaced by the following - a pure tcl markdown implementation available in tcllib as already described further up:


======
package require Tk
catch {console show}

# convert to html using markdown

set dir [file dirname [info script]]

lappend auto_path [file join $dir "lib"]

package require textutil
package require Markdown


set pattern "*.text"
set ext ".html"

# fix the directory name (required for glob under windows) ...
set basedir [string trimright [file join [file normalize $dir] { }]]

# execute markdown...

foreach f [glob -nocomplain -type {f r} -path $basedir $pattern] {

        # change file extension:
        set htmlfile [file rootname $f]
        append htmlfile $ext

        # slurp up the data file
        set fp [open $f "r"]
        set markup [read $fp]
        close $fp

        set fp [open $htmlfile "w"]
        puts -nonewline $fp [Markdown::convert $markup]
        close $fp
}

puts "Done"


if {1} {
        set current_file [file join $dir "testfile.html"]

        set command [list {*}[auto_execok start] {}]
        exec {*}$command chrome $current_file &
        exit 0
}
======


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