# MDEx
A fast 100% CommonMark-compatible GitHub Flavored Markdown parser and formatter for Elixir.
Use Rust's [comrak crate](https://crates.io/crates/comrak) under the hood.
[](https://hexdocs.pm/mdex)
[](https://hex.pm/packages/mdex)
## Installation
Add `:mdex` dependecy:
```elixir
def deps do
[
{:mdex, "~> 0.1"}
]
end
```
## Usage
```elixir
Mix.install([{:mdex, "~> 0.1"}])
MDEx.to_html("# Hello")
#=> "<h1>Hello</h1>\n"
MDEx.to_html(~S"""
# MDEx
Some benefits you'll find:
- Fast
- CommonMark spec
- Binary is precompiled, no need to compile anything
""") |> IO.puts()
#=>
#=> <h1>MDEx</h1>
#=> <p>Some benefits you'll find:</p>
#=> <ul>
#=> <li>Fast</li>
#=> <li>CommonMark spec</li>
#=> <li>Binary is precompiled, no need to compile anything</li>
#=> <li>Easier to work with since it's Rust</li>
#=> </ul>
```
Or play with the [playground livebook](playground.livemd), or the [playground script](playground.exs)
## Benchmark
A [simple script](benchmark.exs) is available to compare existing libs:
```
Name ips average deviation median 99th %
cmark 24.01 K 0.0417 ms ±14.11% 0.0405 ms 0.0631 ms
mdex 16.37 K 0.0611 ms ±9.65% 0.0601 ms 0.0870 ms
md 0.85 K 1.18 ms ±4.72% 1.16 ms 1.36 ms
earmark 0.47 K 2.14 ms ±2.82% 2.13 ms 2.42 ms
Comparison:
cmark 24.01 K
mdex 16.37 K - 1.47x slower +0.0194 ms
md 0.85 K - 28.36x slower +1.14 ms
earmark 0.47 K - 51.47x slower +2.10 ms
```
## Motivation
If any of the available libraries are working for you, keep using it, if not then keep reading.
* `earmark` [can't parse](https://github.com/RobertDober/earmark_parser/issues/126) all kinds of documents and is slow to convert hundreds of markdowns.
* `md` is fast and extensible but the doc says "If one needs to perfectly parse the common markdown, Md is probably not the correct choice" so it also fails to parse many documents.
* `markdown` is not precompiled and has not received updates in a while.
* `cmark` is a fast CommonMark parser but it requires compiling the C library and it's harder to extend (unless you're confortable with C).
So given those trade-offs, mdex brings some benefits over the alternatives:
- Fast
- CommonMark spec
- Binary is precompiled, no need to compile anything
- Easier to work with since it's Rust
