Adds Intro to Markdown talk.

Author: hackergrrl

intro_to_markdown.markdown

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+It's a well known fact that cyberwizards do a lot of writing.
+
+---
+A lot of that writing tends to be spells (programs) or potions (modules).
+
+---
+That's great if you're talking to the Great Void (the computer).
+
+---
+But what about when you need to communicate with fellow wizards?
+
+---
+Chat and IRC and email are swell for NOW, but how about the future?
+
+
+How about when you've created a fabulous spell..
+
+
+..but expect others to use it too?
+
+
+How about if you aren't around to show them how?
+
+---
+Spells are cryptic by nature.
+
+
+They need to be well documented so that other wizards
+
+can understand them.
+
+---
+# Equally importantly:
+
+Since cyberwizards work in the terminal and in the browser
+
+a format is needed that plays nicely with both!
+
+---
+# Enter Markdown
+
+A markup format for humans to read and write to each other.
+
+---
+# Enter Markdown
+
+It retains the benefits of plain text
+
+ - readable in any editor (and human)
+ - not binary
+ - can be happily piped to and from any program that supports plain text
+
+
+While gaining many of the benefits of a markup language like HTML:
+
+ - expresses rich text
+ - web ready (unlike plain text)
+
+---
+HTML alone is not enough!
+
+
+Humans can read it, but the source is only legible with great effort.
+
+---
+
+<CUE: side by side comparison>
+
+---
+# Why do I care?
+
+
+- Not owned by any company -- open 'standard'
+
+
+- Rich open source toolset across many languages
+
+
+- Maintained and extended by a loving community
+
+---
+# Why do I care?
+
+
+- Easily parsed and convertable to many different formats (HTML, PDF, ...)
+
+
+- Trivial to edit markdown by hand in any editor; no special tools needed!
+
+
+- The /lingua franca/ of GitHub documentation (READMEs, Wikis)
+
+
+- Syntax highlighting (minimum) for just about every editor and IDE!
+
+---
+# A Brief History
+
+
+John Gruber drafted the first doc on Markdown in 2004.
+
+
+He wrote a reference implementation in Perl.
+
+---
+# A Brief History
+
+
+11 years later, there are **TONS** of flavors
+
+GitHub (GFM), Pandoc, Markdown Extra, CommonMark
+
+---
+# State of Affairs
+
+
+2014: still no standard spec for Markdown.
+
+Gruber's spec is ambiguous and he doesn't seem interested in changing it.
+
+
+Some folks pushed for a well-defined spec: *Standard Markdown*.
+
+tl;dr: Gruber didn't like it, so now it's *CommonMark*.
+
+---
+# State of Affairs
+
+
+2015: still no /real/ de facto standard. Adoption is slow.
+
+
+WHAT WILL THE FUTURE HOLD?!
+
+---
+# State of Affairs
+
+
+Regardless, various types of Markdown are used all over the web:
+
+
+* GitHub
+
+* Slack
+
+* Stack Overflow
+
+* Reddit
+
+---
+# Let's Write Some Markdown!
+
+* text is text (but paragraphs are tricksy)
+* bold and italics look like what they are
+* headings
+* bullet points
+* links
+* code
+* images
+
+
+<CUE: demo time!>
+
+---
+# How can I render a markdown file to HTML?
+
+## marked
+
+GitHub flavoured markdown by default.
+
+https://github.com/chjj/marked
+
+
+<CUE: let's see it in action!>
+
+---
+# Markdown + Vim
+
+
+Since GitHub uses Markdown for READMEs: let's use that for an example!
+
+
+>  curl -sL https://github.com/watson/npm-geoversion/raw/master/README.md
+
+---
+# Markdown + Vim
+
+
+{ and } move between paragraphs
+
+
+<< and >> shifts text (like bullet points or code)
+
+
+o and O open lines below and above
+
+---
+# Markdown + Vim
+
+
+Vim's markdown plugin doesn't recognize .md as vim.
+
+
+(Because hey, you probably wanted highlighting for Modula-2)
+
+
+`  autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead *.md set filetype=markdown   `
+
+---
+# Markdown + Vim
+
+
+Column width of 80 for ease of viewing in the terminal.
+
+
+(HTML ends up formatted the same anyways).
+
+
+`  autocmd FileType markdown setlocal textwidth=80   `
+
+---
+# Markdown + Vim
+
+
+**Aside: use autocommand groups!**
+
+
+```
+augroup markdown
+  au!
+  autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead *.md set filetype=markdown
+  autocmd FileType markdown setlocal textwidth=80
+augroup END
+```
+
+---
+# Handy Markdown Tools
+
+
+Some handy tools to make your new life with Markdown more pleasant.
+
+---
+# Handy Markdown Tools
+
+## vmd
+
+
+Electron-based markdown viewer.
+
+https://github.com/yoshuawuyts/vmd
+
+```
+augroup markdown
+  au!
+  autocmd FileType markdown nnoremap <Leader>v :w !vmd<CR><CR>
+augroup END
+```
+
+<demo: show github page>
+<demo: take some previous md file and view it>
+
+---
+# Handy Markdown Tools
+
+## strapdown
+
+
+Converts markdown to HTML *and* applies a pre-made CSS theme.
+
+http://strapdownjs.com
+
+<demo: show page>
+<demo: convert a readme to a strapdown doc and open in chrome>
+
+---
+# Handy Markdown Tools
+
+## tslide
+
+
+Presentation slides (like these!) produced from markdown.
+
+https://github.com/dominictarr/tslide
+
+```
+augroup markdown
+  au!
+  autocmd FileType markdown nnoremap <Leader>p :w !tslide<CR><CR>
+augroup END
+```
+
+<demo: show github page>
+<demo: kill current presentation and show them THIS VERY FILE>
+
+---
+# Fin
+
+
+It's over!
+
+
+
+
+I'm Stephen Whitmore!
+
+@noffle on the interwebs.
+
+
+I do open source and indie games.
+
+
+http://www.stephenwhitmore.com
+