It took me about five minutes to do, and as of this moment the Markdown PHP module is a part of my latest build of Epistolary code.

I had some hesitation about adding it into the system until I realized that if you put in real HTML code, you get out exactly what you put in, and if you put in Markdown you get out HTML. So basically I'm able to add the parser into my normal output processing on every page, old and new.

Now everything I write new can be written without the use of angle brackets (at all!) and when I go back and edit old pages I may take out some of the old crusty code, but I don't necessarily have to.

Formatting is going to be way easier. I can now:

• Make lists just by putting a star at the start of a line, like I'm doing now.
• That's pretty much it. I just wanted an excuse to make a list.
• Okay, I'll stop.

So what does this mean to you, the faithful reader? Well, a few things actually. The most interesting to me is that since Markdown produces compliant HTML code, linking new articles into a WAP version of this page is going to be considerably easier. It may even happen this week.

What will happen most likely in the next week or two will be the addition of comments. These will be entirely HTML free, so only Markdown codes will be allowed. I'm not sure if this will cure any cross-site scripting woes right off the bat, but it will sure make it easier to keep at bay.

I may also use OpenID in addition to my own insane little system for comment authentication (besides militant moderation, of course), so all you LiveJournalers can just use the logins and usernames that you are used to to comment here.

Okay, it's way early in the morning and the thunderstorm is almost through passing over, so it's time to get to bed. More later today.

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