Last month I wrote a prototype markdown processor as part of learning the Icon programming language. This month I'm rewriting it as part of learning Go, but this time with the intention of maintaining the tool over the long term.

As mentioned in the previous article, "gebildet" is intended to be a better dexy. I want to be able to write a book (which contains a lot of source code) in Markdown, but keep the code files separate. The tool should allow:

• inserting the code into the final product,
• compiling and/or running the code to verify that it is correct, optionally capturing command/code output into the final product,
• inserting the output from arbitrary commands into the final product,
• extending the tool with additional "directives" (a Markdown syntax extension).

Gebildet will not generate a "final" product (i.e. PDF or ePub) -- this is the domain of a separate tool. What it will generate is "standard" Markdown that can be consumed by a tool like pandoc to generate a final product in whatever format is desired.