MarkdownSharp & GitHub syntax for C# code

Question

Is there a way to get MarkdownSharp (I'm using the NuGet package) to handle 'GitHub flavored Markdown (GFM)' and especially syntax highlighting of c# code, which (in GFM) is written like this:

```c#
//my code.....
```

So, if I pass Markdown formatted content to MarkDownSharp, containg a C# code block (as above) I want it to generate syntax highlighted html for that c# code. Any ideas? I know I can use the supported 4 spaces to indicate a code block, but again, I'm seeking a solution for getting it to support GitHub flavored Markdown.

Answer 1

Here's the result: https://github.com/danielwertheim/kiwi/wiki/Use-with-Asp.Net-MVC

//D

Answer 2

I have made some light modifications to MarkdownSharp that will transform github flavored fenced code blocks

https://github.com/KyleGobel/MarkdownSharp-GithubCodeBlocks

```cs
Console.WriteLine("Fenced code blocks ftw!");
```

Would become

<pre><code class='language-cs'>
Console.WriteLine("Fenced code blocks ftw!");
</code></pre>

It handles the cases I needed to use, there are probably lots of edge cases though, feel free to fork/change/modify/pull request. Markdown sharp has plenty of comments and is all only one file, so it's not too bad to modify.

Answer 3

As one can read in this post, GitHub relies on RedCarpet to render Markdown syntax.

However, Vicent Marti (Sundown (ex-Upskirt) and RedCarpet maintainer) states that the syntax highlighting is specifically handled by Pygments, a python library.

Back to your concern, I can think of several options to benefit from syntax highlighting from C#:

• Try and build a compiled managed version of Pygments source code thanks to IronPython ("IronPython’s Hosting APIs can be used to compile Python scripts into DLLs, console executables, or Windows executables.")
• Port Pygment to C#
• Use a different syntax highlighting product (for instance, ColorCode which is used by Codeplex...)

Then either:

• Fork MarkDownSharp to make it accept plug-ins
• Similarly to what GitHub does, use the managed syntax highlighting product and post process the Html generated by MarkDownSharp

By the way, as a MarkDown alternative, you might want to consider Moonshine, a managed wrapper on top of Sundown which is said to be "at least 20x faster than MarkdownSharp when run against MarkdownSharp's own benchmark app."