- published: 07 Feb 2011
- views: 75061
Markdown is a lightweight markup language, originally created by John Gruber and Aaron Swartz allowing people "to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML)". The language takes many cues from existing conventions for marking up plain text in email.
Markdown is also a Perl script written by Gruber, Markdown.pl, which converts marked-up text input to valid, well-formed XHTML or HTML and replaces left-pointing angle brackets ('<') and ampersands with their corresponding character entity references. It can be used as a standalone script, as a plugin for Blosxom or Movable Type, or as a text filter for BBEdit.
Markdown has since been re-implemented by others as a Perl module available on CPAN (Text::Markdown), and in a variety of other programming languages. It is distributed under a BSD-style license and is included with, or available as a plugin for, several content-management systems.
This is not an exhaustive listing of Markdown's syntax, and in many cases multiple styles of syntax are available to accomplish a particular effect. See the full Markdown syntax for more information. Characters which are ordinarily interpreted by Markdown as formatting commands will instead be interpreted literally if preceded by a backslash; for example, the sequence '\*' would output an asterisk rather than beginning a span of emphasized text. Markdown also does not transform any text within a "raw" block-level XHTML element; thus it is possible to include sections of XHTML within a Markdown source document by wrapping them in block-level XHTML tags.
Geller/Seligson
My granddad used to tell me, "Boy, when I was just your age, I was a river pilot on a showboat called The Stage.
I'd hobnob with them southern belles and ev'ry roustabout. I'd listen to them paddle wheels and hear the leadsman shout!
Chorus:
Mark Twain, it's two fathoms deep below. Mark Twain, heave the gang plank. Start the show.
Mark Twain, play those banjos as we go down the Mississippi, 'round the Gulf of Mexico.
There were gamblers, crooks and fakers and a minstrel man who'd dance. A singin' gal, Simone Lamour, imported straight from France.
It was a floatin' palace, boy, that showboat called The Stage, and granddad was the king of it when he was just my age."
(Chorus)
The calliope is quiet now. The rudder's thick with rust. The main deck and the paddle wheels are covered high with dust.
But granddad's in his glory, still standin' on the bow. A halo 'round his pilot's cap and I can hear him now.