Markdown Language


  • Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers. Markdown allows you to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML).

  • Thus, “Markdown” is two things: 
  1. A plain text formatting syntax; 
  2. A software tool, written in Perl, that converts the plain text formatting to HTML. See the Syntax page for details pertaining to Markdown’s formatting syntax. You can try it out, right now, using the online Dingus.

  • The overriding design goal for Markdown’s formatting syntax is to make it as readable as possible. 
  • The idea is that a Markdown-formatted document should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without looking like it’s been marked up with tags or formatting instructions. While Markdown’s syntax has been influenced by several existing text-to-HTML filters, the single biggest source of inspiration for Markdown’s syntax is the format of plain text email.


Why Use Markdown?


You might be wondering why people use Markdown instead of a WYSIWYG editor. Why write with Markdown when you can press buttons in an interface to format your text? As it turns out, there are several reasons why people use Markdown instead of WYSIWYG editors.


  • Markdown can be used for everything. People use it to create websites, documents, notes, books, presentations, email messages, and technical documentation.
  • Markdown is portable. Files containing Markdown-formatted text can be opened using virtually any application. If you decide you don’t like the Markdown application you’re currently using, you can import your Markdown files into another Markdown application. That’s in stark contrast to word processing applications like Microsoft Word that lock your content into a proprietary file format.
  • Markdown is platform independent. You can create Markdown-formatted text on any device running any operating system.
  • Markdown is future proof. Even if the application you’re using stops working at some point in the future, you’ll still be able to read your Markdown-formatted text using a text editing application. This is an important consideration when it comes to books, university theses, and other milestone documents that need to be preserved indefinitely.
  • Markdown is everywhere. Websites like Reddit and GitHub support Markdown, and lots of desktop and web-based applications support it.



Kicking the Tires


The best way to get started with Markdown is to use it. That’s easier than ever before thanks to a variety of free tools.

You don’t even need to download anything. There are several online Markdown editors that you can use to try writing in Markdown. 

Dillinger is one of the best online Markdown editors. Just open the site and start typing in the left pane. A preview of the rendered document appears in the right pane.




How Does it Work?


Dillinger makes writing in Markdown easy because it hides the stuff happening behind the scenes, but it’s worth exploring how the process works in general.

When you write in Markdown, the text is stored in a plaintext file that has an .md or .markdown extension. But then what? How is your Markdown-formatted file converted into HTML or a print-ready document?

The short answer is that you need a Markdown application capable of processing the Markdown file. There are lots of applications available — everything from simple scripts to desktop applications that look like Microsoft Word. Despite their visual differences, all of the applications do the same thing. Like Dillinger, they all convert Markdown-formatted text to HTML so it can be displayed in web browsers.

Markdown applications use something called a Markdown processor (also commonly referred to as a “parser” or an “implementation”) to take the Markdown-formatted text and output it to HTML format. At that point, your document can be viewed in a web browser or combined with a style sheet and printed. You can see a visual representation of this process below.


Note: The Markdown application and processor are two separate components. For the sake of brevity, I've combined them into one element ("Markdown app") in the figure below.



The Markdown Process


To summarize, this is a four-part process:


  1. Create a Markdown file using a text editor or a dedicated Markdown application. The file should have an .mdor .markdown extension.
  2. Open the Markdown file in a Markdown application.
  3. Use the Markdown application to convert the Markdown file to an HTML document.
  4. View the HTML file in a web browser or use the Markdown application to convert it to another file format, like PDF.



From your perspective, the process will vary somewhat depending on the application you use. For example, Dillinger essentially combines steps 1-3 into a single, seamless interface — all you have to do is type in the left pane and the rendered output magically appears in the right pane. But if you use other tools, like a text editor with a static website generator, you’ll find that the process is much more visible.



Click here to know more about the syntax of markdown

Python Widgets


ipywidgets are interactive HTML widgets for Jupyter notebooks, JupyterLab and the IPython kernel.

Notebooks come alive when interactive widgets are used. Users gain control of their data and can visualize changes in the data.

Learning becomes an immersive, fun experience. 

Researchers can easily see how changing inputs to a model impact the results.



How to add the widget extension  permanently to JupyterLab














Link to the official documentation of ipywidgets: 

https://ipywidgets.readthedocs.io/en/stable/examples/Widget%20Basics.html



Example Code for Widgets