At work, we’re recently started to try and be nice people when it comes to repositories. We’ve started leaving more README’s. Also we’ve found that when we’re sending out emails to other people, formatting code is just a pain. It’s usually just little clips here and there. The kind of thing you would put in a stack overflow post, or a github comment.
Markdown is really nice. It’s quick and elegant. There’s even an Outlook plugin, but only if you’re in windows. But if you’re stuck using Outlook for Mac, there’s not really anything for you. That, along with the fact that I really would like to see what my README will look like, lead me to look into a Vim solution.
Vim Instant Markdown
This Vim plugin looks awesome. The Github is here, but unfortunately, the install instructions are a little odd.
To get up and running, you’ll need to have Node.js installed and the Xcode command line tools (or just Ruby). Once you have those run the following commands.
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sudo gem install pygments.rb sudo gem install redcarpet |
You also need to install the npm package instant-markdown-d . But right now their package doesn’t work. Download their repo and change the package.json to have
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"socket.io" : "~0.9" |
instead of
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"socket.io" : "" |
and then run
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sudo npm install -g <path to instant-markdown-d directory> |
If you have Vundle add the following to your vimrc
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Plugin 'suan/vim-instant-markdown' |
and then execute :PluginInstall
Or if you don’t have Vundle, install it or look at the vim-instant-markdown github for install instructions.
Finally, make sure you have filetype plugin on in your vimrc
Tweaks
When you open something that is recognized as markdown, it opens the preview immediately. If that’s something that annoys you, just throw this in your vimrc
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let g:instant_markdown_autostart = 0 |
in your vimrc. Then, when you open a markdown file, just run :InstantMarkdownPreview
Second, if you don’t want it to update the preview in real time add this to your vimrc
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let g:instant_markdown_slow = 1 |
so that it only updates when
- No keys have been pressed for a while
- A while after you leave insert mode
- You save the file being edited