Txtmark - Java markdown processor

Txtmark is yet another markdown processor for the JVM.

It is easy to use:

String result = txtmark.Processor.process("This is ***TXTMARK***");

It is fast (see below)
... well, it is the fastest markdown processor on the JVM right now.
It does not depend on other libraries, so classpathing txtmark.jar is sufficient to use Txtmark in your project.

For an in-depth explanation of the markdown syntax have a look at daringfireball.net.

Build instructions

Clone the repo or download the sources as tar or zip
Install Apache Ant(TM)
Do
```
ant release
```
and you will find everything you need inside the release folder.

Where Txtmark is not like Markdown

Txtmark does not produce empty title attributes in link and image tags.
Unescaped " in link titles starting with " are not recognized and result in unexpected behaviour.
Due to a different list parsing approach some things get interpreted differently:
```
* List
> Quote
```
will produce when processed with Markdown:
```
<p><ul>
<li>List</p>

<blockquote>
 <p>Quote</li>
</ul></p>
</blockquote>
```
and this when produced with Txtmark:
```
<ul>
<li>List<blockquote><p>Quote</p>
</blockquote>
</li>
</ul>
```
Another one:
```
* List
====
```
will produce when processed with Markdown:
```
<h1>* List</h1>
```
and this when produced with Txtmark:
```
<ul>
<li><h1>List</h1>
</li>
</ul>
```

Txtmark extensions

To enable Txtmark's extended markdown parsing you can use the PROFILE mechanism:

[$PROFILE$]: extended

This seemed to me as the easiest and safest way to enable different behaviours. (All other markdown processors will ignore this line.)

Behavior changes when using `[$PROFILE$]: extended`

Lists and code blocks end a paragraph (inspired by Actuarius)

In normal markdown the following:

This is a paragraph
* and this is not a list

will produce:

<p>This is a paragraph
* and this is not a list</p>

When using Txtmark extensions this changes to:

<p>This is a paragraph</p>
<ul>
<li>and this is not a list</li>
</ul>

Auto HTML entities:
- (C) becomes © - ©
- (R) becomes ® - ®
- (TM) becomes ™ - ™
- -- becomes — - —
- ... becomes … - …
- << becomes « - «
- >> becomes » - »
- "Hello" becomes “Hello” - “Hello”

Markdown conformity

Txtmark passes all tests inside MarkdownTest_1.0_2007-05-09 except of two:

Images.text

Fails because Txtmark doesn't produce empty 'title' image attributes.
(IMHO: Images ... OK)
Literal quotes in titles.text

What the frell ... this test will continue to FAIL.
Sorry, but using unescaped " in a title which should be surrounded by " is unacceptable for me ;)

Change:
```
Foo [bar](/url/ "Title with "quotes" inside").
[bar]: /url/ "Title with "quotes" inside"
```
to:
```
Foo [bar](/url/ "Title with \"quotes\" inside").
[bar]: /url/ "Title with \"quotes\" inside"
```
and Txtmark will produce the correct result.
(IMHO: Literal quotes in titles ... OK)

Performance comparison of markdown processors for the JVM

Based on this benchmark suite.

Excerpt from the original post concerning this benchmark suite:

Most of these tests are of course unrealistic: Who would write a text where each word is a link? Yet they serve an important use: It makes it possible for the developer to pinpoint the parts of the parser where there is most room for improvement. Also, it explains why certain texts might render much faster in one Processor than in another.

Benchmark system:

Ubuntu Linux 10.04 32 Bit
Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_24-b07)
Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build 19.1-b02, mixed mode)

Test	Actuarius		PegDown		Knockoff		Txtmark
	1st Run (ms)	2nd Run (ms)	1st Run (ms)	2nd Run (ms)	1st Run (ms)	2nd Run (ms)	1st Run (ms)	2nd Run (ms)
Plain Paragraphs	1127	577	1273	1037	740	400	157	64
Every Word Emphasized	1562	1001	1523	1513	13982	13221	54	46
Every Word Strong	1125	997	1115	1114	9543	9647	44	41
Every Word Inline Code	382	277	1058	1052	9116	9074	51	39
Every Word a Fast Link	2257	1600	537	531	3980	3410	109	55
Every Word Consisting of Special XML Chars	4045	4270	2985	3044	312	377	778	775
Every Word wrapped in manual HTML tags	3334	2919	901	896	3863	3736	73	62
Every Line with a manual line break	510	588	1445	1440	1527	1130	56	56
Every word with a full link	452	246	1045	996	1884	1819	86	55
Every word with a full image	268	150	1140	1132	1985	1908	38	36
Every word with a reference link	9847	9082	18956	18719	121136	115416	1525	1380
Every block a quote	445	206	1312	1301	478	457	50	45
Every block a codeblock	70	87	373	376	161	175	60	22
Every block a list	920	912	1720	1725	622	651	55	55
All tests together	3281	2885	5184	5196	10130	10460	206	196

Benchmarked versions:
Actuarius version: 0.2
PegDown version: 0.8.5.4
Knockoff version: 0.7.3-15

Mentioned/related projects:
Markdown is Copyright (C) 2004 by John Gruber
Actuarius is Copyright (C) 2010 by Christoph Henkelmann
Knockoff is Copyright (C) 2009-2011 by Tristan Juricek
PegDown is Copyright (C) 2010 by Mathias Doenitz

Project link: https://github.com/rjeschke/txtmark

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