Markdown Discuss - Jul 2011 - php-markdown-extra-extended - my humble attempt at extending php-markdown

Dear all,

I have used Markdown via Drupal a few months now, with a customer site
and my currently my own blog and based on that practical experience I
wanted to add some extra functionality to PHP Markdown Extra, so out
of this grow my (extended) weekend project
https://github.com/egil/php-markdown-extra-extended

The big missing item right now that I would like to implement is the
ability to add classes to block and span elements. My basic idea is to
use a syntax like this: {some class}

I have been playing with some basic ideas for the syntax in this file
but it is far from done:
https://github.com/egil/php-markdown-extra-extended/blob/master/demo/notes/class-syntax-tests.txt

I have looked through some of the archives on the mailing list, and
have not seen this discussed before, so would love some input.

In general, any input on my extension to PHP Markdown is welcome. This
project is also a chance for me to practice regex (my regex-fu is
weak), so please keep the regex-mocking to a minimum; I know it will
be hard :)

Thanks, Egil.

On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 4:12 AM, Egil Hansen <egil at assimilated.dk>
wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I have used Markdown via Drupal a few months now, with a customer site
> and my currently my own blog and based on that practical experience I
> wanted to add some extra functionality to PHP Markdown Extra, so out
> of this grow my (extended) weekend project
> https://github.com/egil/php-markdown-extra-extended
>
> The big missing item right now that I would like to implement is the
> ability to add classes to block and span elements. My basic idea is to
> use a syntax like this: {some class}
If you're looking for prior art, I'd suggest Maruku's attribute
lists
[1]. I'm aware of at least two other markdown implementations which
have adopted this.

[1]: http://maruku.rubyforge.org/proposal.html#attribute_lists


-- 
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\X/ /-\ `/ |_ /-\ |\|
Waylan Limberg

On Jul 13, 2011, at 1:12 AM, Egil Hansen wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I have used Markdown via Drupal a few months now, with a customer site
> and my currently my own blog and based on that practical experience I
> wanted to add some extra functionality to PHP Markdown Extra, so out
> of this grow my (extended) weekend project
> https://github.com/egil/php-markdown-extra-extended
>
> The big missing item right now that I would like to implement is the
> ability to add classes to block and span elements. My basic idea is to
> use a syntax like this: {some class}
     Adding classes & ids are kind of hideous.  What I did with discount
was to extend the []() syntax to allow class: and id: pseudo-classes
(like [postoffice](class:caps) or version [2.1.0](id:v2.1.0) on spans,
and then extended the blockquote syntax to allow them as well, via

 >%class:smaller%
 >stuff

or

 >%id:label%
 >more stuff

I tried to make up extensions that are visually not very obvious
(the other alternative -- floating {: words } after a block -- seems
a little too cluttery for me)

-david parsons

> "who coulda seen that ascetic would be the new aesthetic?"
Nice. I like your writing style.