4 Version 1.0.3 - Sun 06 Sep 2015
13 Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers. Markdown
14 allows you to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text
15 format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML).
17 Thus, "Markdown" is two things: a plain text markup syntax, and a
18 software tool, written in Perl, that converts the plain text markup
21 Markdown works both as a Movable Type plug-in and as a standalone Perl
22 script -- which means it can also be used as a text filter in BBEdit
23 (or any other application that supporst filters written in Perl).
25 Full documentation of Markdown's syntax and configuration options is
26 available in the basics.text and syntax.text files.
27 (Note: this readme file and the basics and syntax files are formatted
32 Installation and Requirements
33 -----------------------------
35 Markdown requires Perl 5.6.0 or later. Welcome to the 21st Century.
36 Markdown also requires the standard Perl library module `Digest::MD5`.
41 Markdown works with Movable Type version 2.6 or later (including
44 1. Copy the "Markdown.pl" file into your Movable Type "plugins"
45 directory. The "plugins" directory should be in the same directory
46 as "mt.cgi"; if the "plugins" directory doesn't already exist, use
47 your FTP program to create it. Your installation should look like
50 (mt home)/plugins/Markdown.pl
52 2. Once installed, Markdown will appear as an option in Movable Type's
53 Text Formatting pop-up menu. This is selectable on a per-post basis.
54 Markdown translates your posts to HTML when you publish; the posts
55 themselves are stored in your MT database in Markdown format.
57 3. If you also install SmartyPants 1.5 (or later), Markdown will offer
58 a second text formatting option: "Markdown with SmartyPants". This
59 option is the same as the regular "Markdown" formatter, except that
60 automatically uses SmartyPants to create typographically correct
61 curly quotes, em-dashes, and ellipses. See the SmartyPants web page
62 for more information: <http://daringfireball.net/projects/smartypants/>
64 4. To make Markdown (or "Markdown with SmartyPants") your default
65 text formatting option for new posts, go to Weblog Config ->
68 Note that by default, Markdown produces XHTML output. To configure
69 Markdown to produce HTML 4 output, see "Configuration", below.
74 Markdown works with Blosxom version 2.x.
76 1. Rename the "Markdown.pl" plug-in to "Markdown" (case is
77 important). Movable Type requires plug-ins to have a ".pl"
78 extension; Blosxom forbids it.
80 2. Copy the "Markdown" plug-in file to your Blosxom plug-ins folder.
81 If you're not sure where your Blosxom plug-ins folder is, see the
82 Blosxom documentation for information.
84 3. That's it. The entries in your weblog will now automatically be
85 processed by Markdown.
87 4. If you'd like to apply Markdown formatting only to certain posts,
88 rather than all of them, see Jason Clark's instructions for using
89 Markdown in conjunction with Blosxom's Meta plugin:
91 <http://jclark.org/weblog/WebDev/Blosxom/Markdown.html>
96 Markdown works with BBEdit 6.1 or later on Mac OS X. (It also works
97 with BBEdit 5.1 or later and MacPerl 5.6.1 on Mac OS 8.6 or later.)
99 1. Copy the "Markdown.pl" file to appropriate filters folder in your
100 "BBEdit Support" folder. On Mac OS X, this should be:
102 BBEdit Support/Unix Support/Unix Filters/
104 See the BBEdit documentation for more details on the location of
107 You can rename "Markdown.pl" to whatever you wish.
109 2. That's it. To use Markdown, select some text in a BBEdit document,
110 then choose Markdown from the Filters sub-menu in the "#!" menu, or
111 the Filters floating palette
118 By default, Markdown produces XHTML output for tags with empty elements.
123 Markdown can be configured to produce HTML-style tags; e.g.:
130 You need to use a special `MTMarkdownOptions` container tag in each
131 Movable Type template where you want HTML 4-style output:
133 <MTMarkdownOptions output='html4'>
134 ... put your entry content here ...
137 The easiest way to use MTMarkdownOptions is probably to put the
138 opening tag right after your `<body>` tag, and the closing tag right
141 To suppress Markdown processing in a particular template, i.e. to
142 publish the raw Markdown-formatted text without translation into
143 (X)HTML, set the `output` attribute to 'raw':
145 <MTMarkdownOptions output='raw'>
146 ... put your entry content here ...
152 Use the `--html4tags` command-line switch to produce HTML output from a
153 Unix-style command line. E.g.:
155 % perl Markdown.pl --html4tags foo.text
157 Type `perldoc Markdown.pl`, or read the POD documentation within the
158 Markdown.pl source code for more information.
167 + Markdown.pl can now be require'd and the Markdown function called
168 repeatedly by external code.
170 + Backticks (```) delimited code blocks are now handled better and are
171 no longer subject to any further accidental processing.
176 + Added support for --htmlroot option to set a URL prefix.
178 + Relaxed matching rule for non-indented code blocks.
180 + Added support for --imageroot option to set an img URL prefix.
185 + Added support for -h and --help to display Markdown.pl help.
187 + Added support for third-level headers using setext-like
188 underlining using tildes (`~`'s).
190 + Added support for an optional overline using the same character
191 as the underline when using setext-style headers.
193 + Stopped recognizing `_` within words. The `*` character is still
194 recognized within words.
196 + Added support for strike through text using `~~` similarly to the
197 way strong works using `**`.
199 + Added support for non-indended code blocks by preceding and following
200 them with a line consisting of 3 backtick quotes (`` ` ``) or more.
205 + Changed the syntax rules for code blocks and spans. Previously,
206 backslash escapes for special Markdown characters were processed
207 everywhere other than within inline HTML tags. Now, the contents
208 of code blocks and spans are no longer processed for backslash
209 escapes. This means that code blocks and spans are now treated
210 literally, with no special rules to worry about regarding
213 **NOTE**: This changes the syntax from all previous versions of
214 Markdown. Code blocks and spans involving backslash characters
215 will now generate different output than before.
217 + Tweaked the rules for link definitions so that they must occur
218 within three spaces of the left margin. Thus if you indent a link
219 definition by four spaces or a tab, it will now be a code block.
221 [a]: /url/ "Indented 3 spaces, this is a link def"
223 [b]: /url/ "Indented 4 spaces, this is a code block"
225 **IMPORTANT**: This may affect existing Markdown content if it
226 contains link definitions indented by 4 or more spaces.
228 + Added `>`, `+`, and `-` to the list of backslash-escapable
229 characters. These should have been done when these characters
230 were added as unordered list item markers.
232 + Trailing spaces and tabs following HTML comments and `<hr/>` tags
235 + Inline links using `<` and `>` URL delimiters weren't working:
237 like [this](<http://example.com/>)
239 + Added a bit of tolerance for trailing spaces and tabs after
242 + Fixed bug where auto-links were being processed within code spans:
244 like this: `<http://example.com/>`
246 + Sort-of fixed a bug where lines in the middle of hard-wrapped
247 paragraphs, which lines look like the start of a list item,
248 would accidentally trigger the creation of a list. E.g. a
249 paragraph that looked like this:
251 I recommend upgrading to version
252 8. Oops, now this line is treated
255 This is fixed for top-level lists, but it can still happen for
256 sub-lists. E.g., the following list item will not be parsed
259 + I recommend upgrading to version
260 8. Oops, now this line is treated
263 Given Markdown's list-creation rules, I'm not sure this can
266 + Standalone HTML comments are now handled; previously, they'd get
267 wrapped in a spurious `<p>` tag.
269 + Fix for horizontal rules preceded by 2 or 3 spaces.
271 + `<hr>` HTML tags in must occur within three spaces of left
272 margin. (With 4 spaces or a tab, they should be code blocks, but
273 weren't before this fix.)
275 + Capitalized "With" in "Markdown With SmartyPants" for
276 consistency with the same string label in SmartyPants.pl.
277 (This fix is specific to the MT plug-in interface.)
279 + Auto-linked email address can now optionally contain
280 a 'mailto:' protocol. I.e. these are equivalent:
282 <mailto:user@example.com>
285 + Fixed annoying bug where nested lists would wind up with
286 spurious (and invalid) `<p>` tags.
288 + You can now write empty links:
292 and they'll be turned into anchor tags with empty href attributes.
293 This should have worked before, but didn't.
295 + `***this***` and `___this___` are now turned into
297 <strong><em>this</em></strong>
301 <strong><em>this</strong></em>
303 which isn't valid. (Thanks to Michel Fortin for the fix.)
305 + Added a new substitution in `_EncodeCode()`: s/\$/$/g; This
306 is only for the benefit of Blosxom users, because Blosxom
307 (sometimes?) interpolates Perl scalars in your article bodies.
309 + Fixed problem for links defined with urls that include parens, e.g.:
311 [1]: http://sources.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East_Policy_(Chomsky)
313 "Chomsky" was being erroneously treated as the URL's title.
315 + At some point during 1.0's beta cycle, I changed every sub's
316 argument fetching from this idiom:
322 my $text = shift || return '';
324 The idea was to keep Markdown from doing any work in a sub
325 if the input was empty. This introduced a bug, though:
326 if the input to any function was the single-character string
327 "0", it would also evaluate as false and return immediately.
328 How silly. Now fixed.
332 Copyright and License
333 ---------------------
335 Copyright (C) 2003-2004 John Gruber
336 Copyright (C) 2015 Kyle J. McKay
339 Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
340 modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
343 * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
344 this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
346 * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
347 notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
348 documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
350 * Neither the name "Markdown" nor the names of its contributors may
351 be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
352 without specific prior written permission.
354 This software is provided by the copyright holders and contributors "as
355 is" and any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited
356 to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a
357 particular purpose are disclaimed. In no event shall the copyright owner
358 or contributors be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special,
359 exemplary, or consequential damages (including, but not limited to,
360 procurement of substitute goods or services; loss of use, data, or
361 profits; or business interruption) however caused and on any theory of
362 liability, whether in contract, strict liability, or tort (including
363 negligence or otherwise) arising in any way out of the use of this
364 software, even if advised of the possibility of such damage.