md2pango

The first Markdown to Pango Markup Converter!

md2pango is a simple regex-based line-by-line converter to convert simple Markdown to Pango Markup.

Purpose

Use Markdown + md2pango to define short texts for small dialogs in lightweight GTK apps. Pango's scope is very limited and thus are md2pango's supported Markdown features. For true richtext support and interactive apps use WebKitGTK.

The project started as part of a Gnome Extension and was later refactored to become a generic NPM module.

Usage

To use it in a GTK app, first add src/md2pango.js to the imports; either by just copying the file or during packaging.

// Gnome Extension, with `md2pango.js` copied next to your `extension.js`
const md2pango = Me.imports.md2pango

// GTK app
imports.searchPath.unshift('path/to/md2pango')
const md2pango = imports.md2pango

// node.js app after installing the md2pango module
const md2pango = require('md2pango')

Thereafter just use md2pango.convert(str:String) -> str:String.

let pangoText = md2pango.convert('### Heading')
// pangoText: <big>Heading</big>

CLI Mode

The module comes with a installable binary md2pango.

Using md2pango FILE [FILE...] one or more Markdown files can be converted to Pango Markup. The result is written to process.stdout.

Use it to convert Markdown files in your Pango/GTK projects if you cannot or don't want to ship md2pango.js with your code.

Converted Elements

   headings:         #, ##, ###, ===, ---
   unordered list:   * item
   ordered list:     1. item
   escaping:         <, >, &
   code block start: ```, ```lang
   code block stop:  ```
   inline styles:    **bold**, *emph*, `fixed`
   inline urls:      [name](link)
   url detection:    http[s]?://.*
   comments:         <!-- -->
   color marcos:     <!--fg|bg=COLOR|#RGB-->

Macros

Pango colors can be set as Markdown comments using <!--fg=#RGB bg=#RGB-->. Color names instead of #RGB are also supported. Use <!--/--> to close the currently coloring block. Currently, colors modifications cannot be nested. Use only one macro per line!

Limitations

• All undetected markdown features will be escaped and converted as regular text.
• Multiple URIs on one line may cause trouble.
• Valid but unsupported Markdown/Pango XML tags are escaped and converted as regular text.
• Conversion and escaping are best effort (there are probably some ways to break it).
• The effects of nesting styles are unpredictable (requires a smarter Markdown parser).
• Multi-line list items are not supported.

Licenses

Code: MIT

Visuals: CC-BY-4.0

Contributing

When making changes to the project, please ensure that all changes also work in GJS/GTK apps and in Gnome Extensions. Also see CONTRIBUTING.md.