M-Markdown

M-Markdown is a modern markup language, based upon the popular, intuitive, Markdown. From note-taking to screenplays and novels, it specifically targets writers, who simply want a plain-text, easy-to-read, elegant markup language for all of their projects. It aims to be a general purpose markup language, chiefly with the intention of being compiled directly into portable document formats, such as Adobe's PDF. To this end, where Markdown depends on CSS for complex styling, M-Markdown seeks to be able to allow the user to style things directly.

What's New?

Now at v.0.05 the syntax file has basic support for Pandoc Markdown quirks

What's Next?

The current syntax highlighting package for Vim is rather contrinved. The next goal is to completely rewrite it. The planned structure will work in blocks rather than everything jumbled together.

Goal

The ultimate goal of M-Markdown, is to be easy to read before being compiled, but it would be nice for it to be an easier alternative to ROFF and TeX solutions. So, while it does aim to be 100% backward compatible with normal Markdown, it also aims to push a new standard (Which will be full effect with M-MD2.)

The most important immediate goal is to produce functional syntax highlighting packages for many popular editors; namely, Vim.

The secondary goal is to produce a working standalone compiler or compilers. Ideally in Rust and/or C/C++. Something quick, lightweight, and extensible.

What Will be the Difference?

The only things worth noting are modifications to heading syntax, as well as underline support, and distinction between lead and body paragraphs, which would be handled in a compiler¹.

1. Underline support is handled via removing interchangeability between asterisks (*) and underlines (_).

   underlined text

2. Basic heading syntax is built upon, not overwritten--everything is the same.

   #H1 -- or --
   Heading 1
   =

   ##H2 -- or --
   Heading 2
   -

   ###H3 -- or --
   Heading 3
   ~
   -- or --
   #Heading 3
   -

   ####H4 -- or --
   ##Heading 4
   - -- or --
   #Heading 4
   ~

   And so-on

3. Lead paragraphs are left un-indented. Body paragraphs should be indented either with two spaces (\s\s) at the start of the line, half that of what is needed to enter a code or monospaced block

   Example Section
   -

   This is an example sentence--it is completely meaningless
   and only serves as an example, pupsuant to the context.

   This is yet another example sentence--it also is meaningless
   and serves as an example in the immediate context.

Some users may not want to worry about remembering indention, if not for that it is not good Markdown syntax. Ideally, a compiler should be able to handle this automatically, with the ability to even remove distinction.

Also, though unimportant, MMD may highlight text by using the following for foreground colours:

\\black" ... "   -- or -- \\black{ ... }
\\blue" ... "    -- or -- \\blue{ ... }
\\brown" ... "   -- or -- \\brown{ ... }
\\green" ... "   -- or -- \\green{ ... }
\\cyan" ... "    -- or -- \\cyan{ ... }
\\red" ... "     -- or -- \\red{ ... }
\\magenta" ... " -- or -- \\magenta{ ... }
\\Yellow" ... "  -- or -- \\yellow{ ... }
\\white" ... "   -- or -- \\white{ ... }
\\grey" ... "    -- or -- \\grey{ ... }  -- or -- “gray” in place of “grey”

And for background colours:

\\hiblack" ... "   -- or -- \\hiblack{ ... }
\\hiblue" ... "    -- or -- \\hiblue{ ... }
\\hibrown" ... "   -- or -- \\hibrown{ ... }
\\higreen" ... "   -- or -- \\higreen{ ... }
\\hicyan" ... "    -- or -- \\hicyan{ ... }
\\hired" ... "     -- or -- \\hired{ ... }
\\himagenta" ... " -- or -- \\himagenta{ ... }
\\hiYellow" ... "  -- or -- \\hiyellow{ ... }
\\hiwhite" ... "   -- or -- \\hiwhite{ ... }
\\higrey" ... "    -- or -- \\higrey{ ... }  -- or -- “higray” in place of “higrey”

How to Use the Syntax File(s)?

Cloning the Repo

I recommend creating a directory in your ~/Downloads, called .src, for all source code. but you may prefer to put it elsewhere.

1. mkdir -p ~/Downloads/.src
2. git clone https://github.com/Matthew-Tate-Scarbrough/mmarkdown.git ~/Downloads/.src/mmarkdown

VIM/GVIM

For Vim, simply do the following:

3. cd ~/Downloads/.src/mmarkdown
4. mkdir -p ~/.vim/syntax
5. cp -f syntax/mmarkdown.vim ~/.vim/syntax/

Now you have the option to either call the syntax highlighting in any file with set syntax=mmarkdown or... add the following line to your .vimrc:

6. vim ~/.vimrc, then add the line: au BufRead,BufNewFile *.mmd,*.txt set filetype=mmarkdown syntax=mmarkdown

NeoVim

For NeoVim, the process is similar to above

4. mkdir -p ~/.config/nvim/syntax
5. cp -f syntax/mmarkdown.vim ~/.config/nvim/syntax/
6. nvim ~/.config/nvim/init.vim and add: au BufRead,BufNewFile *.mmd,*.txt set filetype=mmarkdown syntax=mmarkdown

The Default Colour Scheme is Ugly

Yes, but it works. I plan on fixing it soon. Though, I will mostlikely make it fit the Vim recommendations, and then you can use a good or custom theme, like Nord or something...

Footnotes

1. NOTE: As of v0.04 of the Vim syntax file, it does not have any support for Body/Lead paragraph distinctions, as it has not been planned out yet. ↩