Fargo 0.55, 0.56 -- Markdown

Fargo now has a built-in Markdown processor.

We're using the open source Pagedown library.

The Fargo docs have been updated to include a new section on Markdown.

Here's an example of an outline, and the Markdown-rendered version of the outline.

We generate the text from the outline and pass it through Pagedown, and save what it returns to the #markdown sub-folder of the Fargo folder.

Two returns for every headline (0.56)

Based on feedback from Jason Gilman, I changed the way we generate text before passing it to Markdown. Previously we added a single newline character at the end of each line. Now we generate two carriage return characters. That way each headline generates a new paragraph in Markdown.

This kind of feedback, especially early in the process, is very important. We can change things now because there is no installed base of documents that use Markdown. Later it will be harder to make a change because of potential breakage.

This was the only change in 0.56.

Consider it experimental

We've tested the processor and it seems to work, but neither Kyle or myself are experts on Markdown.

Markdown support was a much listed feature request, so we know that there are plenty of Fargo users who will know what to do with this. However the conventions on how to use outline structure are not at well-understood. It's all very new as far as we know.

If there are problems, please report them in a comment here. Also if you feel we should be generating the text differently, post a comment. It's just the beginning of outliners and Markdown, so we may have to make changes in how this works.

We're also planning on implementing Markdown in Trex, the server-side CMS we're building to work with Fargo.


Posted: Fri, 03 May 2013 19:59:15 GMT