This blog, blabnow.blog, is my first and only blog. I set it up two years ago to support a petition to the Los Alamos County Council. It took quite a lot of time to select tools and set them up. The SpeakOut! plugin for WordPress worked out. However, I don’t like editing the posts in a GUI. So today I am trying out the Import Markdown plugin for WordPress. I plan to edit posts on my desktop computer and upload them to the blog.
Markup Languages
One feature that I like about markup languages is definition lists. Here are some of the tools that I’ve used for writing:
- roff
- I used roff on an IBM 360-91 to write a paper on punch cards for an undergraduate history class. It didn’t go well.
- ditroff
- I used troff and ditroff with macro packages on a Ridge-32 computer for a couple of papers for course work in graduate school.
- MacWrite
- The first scientific paper I published was written in MacWrite, a WYSIWYG tool. I decided that I prefer markup languages, and reverted to ditroff for my second publication.
- LaTeX
- I wrote my third publication in LaTeX. Using a LaTeX dissertation style, I combined that paper with my two previous publications to make my dissertation. I’ve used LaTeX ever since.
- Markdown
- I have some experience writing computer code documentation with markdown. I like the idea, and I’m going to try it for the blog.
Using the Tools
Since markdown isn’t WYSIWYG, I’ll use local tools to preview my posts. Here is the whole sequence for getting this posted to blabnow.blog:
- Use a text editor to create test.md.
- Preview the document.
- Make html:
pandoc -s --metadata title="Testing Markdown" -o test.html test.md - View the result with firefox
firefox test.html. Sublists of the numbered list don’t look right here, but they are OK when imported into WordPress.
- Make html:
- Upload to blabnow.blog using the GUI plugin Import Markdown.
- From the menu on the right click Markdown/Import
- Click on browse to select the file test.md
- Click on Upload file and import
- Click on “here” in You can edit it here.
- Oops, I don’t like some of how that looks. I guess it’s OK that it doesn’t immediately post it. I’ll put the title in by hand using the GUI.
- Edit test.md on my desktop computer, and in the WordPress GUI choose Parsedown Extra from the Markdown/Options menu. Remove double spaces and line breaks in the source which the importer translates to line breaks in the displayed text.
- Try uploading again, and success!