Use VIM to make notes [markdown]

Sometimes you will face a situation that you want to write down some notes, but you can not have a suitable tool on handle. For example, you only have VIM to edit and don't have the "Notes" like Evernote, OneNote etc. So how can you make writing down a note easy? Here's one solution: VIM + Voom + markdown syntax highlight

Source file of this post is reference to markdown.mkd, One screen show:

 

Markdown

Markdown is intended to be as easy-to-read and easy-to-write as is feasible. Markdown’s syntax is intended for one purpose: to be used as a format for writing for the web.

Reference: <http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax>

Syntax

Header

Two types of header: Setext and atx

• Setext
  = for 1st level
  
  • for 2nd level
• atx
  # for H1
  ## for H2
  ### for H3
  #### for H4
  ##### for H5
  ###### for H6
  

Block Quotes

• Use the > for each line or only > for each paragraph

Quote Block or

• can be nested

Quote

Block

Bullets

• *, - and + all do the same

Numbering

1. 1 Use the number
2. 2
3. 3

Codeblocks

Indent with 4 spaces or one tab. C Example: for(i = 0; i \< 5; i++) { printf("%d\n", i); }

Horizontal Rules

• three or more (*, -, or _)
  

  ---

  ---

  ---

Links

• Link
  
  • Markdown
  • Markdown
• Reference Style Markdown, Markdown
  
• Automatic link > http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax
  

Emphasis

Text wrapped in * and _

• Markdown is very helpful to make notes
• Markdown is very helpful to make notes

Code

Wrap the code with backtick quotes (`) * printf() function will print on the stardard output 0

Special characters

The special characters (\, `, *, _, -, {}, ], (), #, +, ., !) can be inputted by a prefix backslash \

Markdown syntax highlight

Installation

• It's very easy to install it. Just download the latest the markdown-.vba.gz, then
  $ vim makedown-.vba.gz +":so %"
  Reference: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2882
  
• Make sure the syntax highlight is on and can be set in .vimrc syntax on filetype on
  

Usage

Just create a new file with extension 'mkd', for example $ vim hello.mkd

Voom - Two-pane outliner

Installation

• Prerequisite: Voom requires the python should be installed
• Download VOoM-.zip
• Unzip it to the ~/.vim/
• Update help tags : helptags $HOME/.vim/doc
  Reference: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2657
  

Usage

• Load the markdown format file, such as hello.mkd
• Open Voom markdown markup formats within VIM : Voom markdown

Markups supported

Voom can support a variety of markups - fmr, fmr1, fmr2 -- start fold markers with levels (variations of the default mode);
- wiki -- MediaWiki, headlines are surrounded by '=';
- vimwiki -- vimwiki plugin (vimscript #2226);
- viki -- Viki/Deplate plugin (vimscript #861);
- org -- Emacs Org-mode;
- rest -- reStructuredText section titles;
- markdown -- Markdown headers, both Setext-style and Atx-style;
- hashes -- #, ##, ###, etc. (Atx-style headers, a subset of Markdown format);
- txt2tags -- txt2tags titles and numbered titles;
- asciidoc -- AsciiDoc document and section titles, both styles;
- latex -- LaTeX sectioning and some other commands;
- taskpaper -- TaskPaper (vimscript #2027);
- thevimoutliner -- The Vim Outliner plugin (vimscript #517);
- vimoutliner -- VimOutliner plugin (vimscript #3515);
- cwiki -- vimscript #2176;
- html -- HTML heading tags, single line only;
- python -- Python code browser, blocks between 'class' and 'def' are also nodes.

Convert to html

Installation of python-markdown

• MAC OS: $ sudo easy_install Markdown

Command line

$ markdown_py -f hello.html hello.mkd

Notes: two spaces in the end of line means EOL