Can next version support Markdown function?

[donnie888]

Dear friends

Do you expect the next version of SIGIL can support Markdown function?
I hope the designer of SIGIL can consider this suggestion.

Thanks!

donnie

Markdown Sample

[eschwartz]

The purpose of Sigil is to open and modify ePubs. There are already programs that convert markdown to ePub. calibre for one.

The Sigil developers have said before that the goal of Sigil is NOT to be a universal ebook converter/editor, rather, to do ONE thing and do it well.

This doesn't fit within their design parameters; however, calibre can convert from markdown .txt's to ePubs, why don't you give that a try?

[cybmole]

what next version - do try to keep up

[mrmikel]

Since you are new to the forum, development on Sigil has stopped because the lead developer has lost all of his helpers and does not want to carry on by himself.

Sigil is written in the C programming language or a variant of it. It is popular language among professional programmers, but hard to find among others. So no volunteers have shown up.

He may correct obvious major errors that show up, but that is about all. No new features at all.

[Leonatus]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

... This doesn't fit within their design parameters; however, calibre can convert from markdown .txt's to ePubs, why don't you give that a try?

Something curious occured to me: I purchased an epub and noticed that it was full of strange signs in the middle of the text, such as _Text text text_ (this one mostly to indicate direct speech). As it was an english book, I first thought, well, this might be "the english way" to mark direct speech (so it never occured to me this way in earlier times with printed books). But there were also other strange formattings, and only now I learned that this could be symptoms of an original markdown formatting. I didn't yet try, but to achieve the intended result, it should be possible to
1. open the epub in Sigil,
2. copy the text,
3. paste into text editor (NotePad++, f. ex.),
4. save it as .txt,
5. fetch it as such in Calibre and
6. convert it to epub again.

This should convert the markdowns as well, shouldn't it?

Edit: "so"= "though", of course!

[Doitsu]

@Leonatus: You don't have to use Calibre. You can instead use an online editor, for example, Markable or download pandoc.

[Leonatus]

Ah, thanks, I didn't know about that. But in Calibre, it should work as well, shouldn't it?

[Leonatus]

I see that the "EpubStar" program of Oxen has markdown conversion as a feature. I'll try that.

[paxmark1]

I was going to search for that, but here it is posted.

Calibre is going to throw in all sorts of it's preferred .css and markup. In linux pandoc should work, I am playing with it at present. However pandoc will not (as far as I can detemine) go from markdown directly to .epub You will have to go to an intermediate stage, say .html.

Another option is epubmaker. There is more than one epubmaker. The open source python one found at Distributed Proofreaders epubmaker will convert text to .epub (html, .rtf and .pdf also) Note: IT REALLY PREFERS RST as the initial source

https://pypi.python.org/pypi/epubmaker/0.3.19

http://www.pgdp.net/wiki/RST:_EpubMaker_Guide

online version at DP where you can upload raw and see what will result is. Try giving it some markdown.

http://epubmaker.pglaf.org/

epubmakers splits can be a little random.

googling epubmaker marcello removes the commercial epubmaker

Another program that is used by users of Distributed Proofreaders and DPCanada is in perl - guiguts. But it will not convert directly to .epub, again the intermediate .html is the result. The formatting of the raw text that goes to guiguts is close to markdown.

Tcl/Tk gui. If debian - do not follow the dated guides for installation, especially if you follow testing.

For quick and dirty - Calibre is the way to go. For the best "hands on" control for best finished output in open source Sigil is it. But you will need .html to start