CommonMark, a pure Python Markdown parser and renderer

By Vasudev Ram

I got to know about CommonMark.org via this post on the Python Reddit:

CommonMark.py - pure Python Markdown parser and renderer

From what I could gather, CommonMark is, or aims to be, two things:

1. "A standard, unambiguous syntax specification for Markdown, along with a suite of comprehensive tests".

2. A Python parser and renderer for the CommonMark Markdown spec.

CommonMark on PyPI, the Python Package Index.

Excerpts from the CommonMark.org site:

[ We propose a standard, unambiguous syntax specification for Markdown, along with a suite of comprehensive tests to validate Markdown implementations against this specification. We believe this is necessary, even essential, for the future of Markdown. ]

[ Who are you?
We're a group of Markdown fans who either work at companies with industrial scale deployments of Markdown, have written Markdown parsers, have extensive experience supporting Markdown with end users – or all of the above.

John MacFarlane
David Greenspan
Vicent Marti
Neil Williams
Benjamin Dumke-von der Ehe
Jeff Atwood ]

So I installed the Python library for it with:

pip install commonmark

Then modified this snippet of example code from the CommonMark PyPI site:

import CommonMark
parser = CommonMark.DocParser()
renderer = CommonMark.HTMLRenderer()
print(renderer.render(parser.parse("Hello *World*")))

on my local machine, to add a few more types of Markdown syntax:

import CommonMark
parser = CommonMark.DocParser()
renderer = CommonMark.HTMLRenderer()
markdown_string = \
"""
Heading
=======
 
Sub-heading
-----------
 
# Atx-style H1 heading.
## Atx-style H2 heading.
### Atx-style H3 heading.
#### Atx-style H4 heading.
##### Atx-style H5 heading.
###### Atx-style H6 heading.
 
Paragraphs are separated
by a blank line.
 
Let 2 spaces at the end of a line to do a  
line break
 
Text attributes *italic*, **bold**, `monospace`.
 
A [link](http://example.com).
 
Shopping list:
 
  * apples
  * oranges
  * pears
 
Numbered list:
 
  1. apples
  2. oranges
  3. pears
 
"""
print(renderer.render(parser.parse(markdown_string)))

Here is a screenshot of the output HTML generated by CommonMark, loaded in Google Chrome:

Reddit user bracewel, who seems to be a CommonMark team member, said on the Py Reddit thread:

eventually we'd like to add a few more renderers, PDF/RTF being the first....

So CommonMark looks interesting and worth keeping an eye on, IMO.

- Vasudev Ram - Dancing Bison Enterprises - Python training and consulting

Dancing Bison - Contact Page

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