Why is a markdown compiler required to preview markdown?

[room]

The markdown preview feature needs to install one of these packages(compiler):

• markedjs: a markdown compiler “built for speed”
• pandoc: the universal markup transpiler
• markdown: there are various flavors of this compiler. This module will look for these two:
  • John Gruber’s original perl script
  • The C implementation called discount, by David Parsons
• multimarkdown: a compiler for a language that is a superset of Markdown, with additional output formats and features.

Can’t it been integrated with Doom Emacs itself? Just need to add markdown in .doom.d/init.el is very simple.

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When SPC m p, it opened an html page in browser. Can’t it preview in Doom Emacs(a separated window) itself?

[hlissner]

If you want to preview markdown, you need a markdown compiler. There is no markdown compiler written in Elisp, so no, it cannot be integrated into Doom Emacs. You could, however, install a markdown viewer plugin in your browser, like Markdown Viewer – Get this Extension for 🦊 Firefox (en-US), to get low-effort markdown previews.

[room]

Thank you very much for your reply!

There is no markdown compiler written in Elisp

This is the reason. Everything easy to use with Doom Emacs. Searching files or words don’t need to install third party library. So I think if markdown preview can easily use will be more awesome.

Thank you for your suggestion about the browser plugin. It looks good to use.

[jman]

@room and if you prefer to stay on the terminal, there are also Markdown compilers that render on the CLI, example glow

[room]

Thank you for sharing the TUI.