| Jean-Baptiste Queru | 6516b99 | 2011-02-04 14:12:08 -0800 | [diff] [blame^] | 1 | Python-Markdown 2.0 Release Notes |
| 2 | ================================= |
| 3 | |
| 4 | We are happy to release Python-Markdown 2.0, which has been over a year in the |
| 5 | making. We have rewritten significant portions of the code, dramatically |
| 6 | extending the extension API, increased performance, and added numerous |
| 7 | extensions to the distribution (including an extension that mimics PHP Markdown |
| 8 | Extra), all while maintaining backward compatibility with the end user API in |
| 9 | version 1.7. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | Python-Markdown supports Python versions 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, and 2.6. We've even |
| 12 | released a version converted to Python 3.0! |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Backwards-incompatible Changes |
| 15 | ------------------------------ |
| 16 | |
| 17 | While Python-Markdown has experienced numerous internal changes, those changes |
| 18 | should only affect extension authors. If you have not written your own |
| 19 | extensions, then you should not need to make any changes to your code. |
| 20 | However, you may want to ensure that any third party extensions you are using |
| 21 | are compatible with the new API. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | The new extension API is fully documented in [[writing_extensions]]. Below is a |
| 24 | summary of the significant changes: |
| 25 | |
| 26 | * The old home-grown NanoDOM has been replaced with ElementTree. Therefore all |
| 27 | extensions must use ElementTree rather than the old NanoDOM. |
| 28 | * The various processors and patterns are now stored with OrderedDicts rather |
| 29 | than lists. Any code adding processors and/or patterns into Python-Markdown |
| 30 | will need to be adjusted to use the new API using OrderedDicts. |
| 31 | * The various types of processors available have been either combined, added, |
| 32 | or removed. Ensure that your processors match the currently supported types. |
| 33 | |
| 34 | What's New in Python-Markdown 2.0 |
| 35 | --------------------------------- |
| 36 | |
| 37 | Thanks to the work of Artem Yunusov as part of GSoC 2008, Python-Markdown uses |
| 38 | ElementTree internally to build the (X)HTML document from markdown source text. |
| 39 | This has resolved various issues with the older home-grown NanoDOM and made |
| 40 | notable increases in performance. |
| 41 | |
| 42 | Artem also refactored the Inline Patterns to better support nested patterns |
| 43 | which has resolved many inconsistencies in Python-Markdown's parsing of the |
| 44 | markdown syntax. |
| 45 | |
| 46 | The core parser had been completely rewritten, increasing performance and, for |
| 47 | the first time, making it possible to override/add/change the way block level |
| 48 | content is parsed. |
| 49 | |
| 50 | Python-Markdown now parses markdown source text more closely to the other |
| 51 | popular implementations (Perl, PHP, etc.) than it ever has before. With the |
| 52 | exception of a few minor insignificant differences, any difference should be |
| 53 | considered a bug, rather than a limitation of the parser. |
| 54 | |
| 55 | The option to return HTML4 output as apposed to XHTML has been added. In |
| 56 | addition, extensions should be able to easily add additional output formats. |
| 57 | |
| 58 | As part of implementing markdown in the Dr. Project project (a Trac fork), among |
| 59 | other things, David Wolever refactored the "extension" keyword so that it |
| 60 | accepts either the extension names as strings or instances of extensions. This |
| 61 | makes it possible to include multiple extensions in a single module. |
| 62 | |
| 63 | Numerous extensions are included in the distribution by default. See |
| 64 | [[available_extensions]] for a complete list. |
| 65 | |
| 66 | See the [[change_log]] for a full list of changes. |
| 67 | |