ckeditor - Integrated Markdown WYSIWYG text editor

Question

In looking for a straightforward WYSIWYG editor for Markdown code, I am not finding a comparible UI to that of CkEditor, TinyMCE, ect.

Specifically, the Markdown "WYSIWYG" editors that are often recommended (such as posts like this ) are not pure WYSIWYG editors in the sense that users either still write raw Markdown ( MarkItUp ) or go to the other extreme of having in-line editing without standard controls ( Hallo ).

I need something in-between.

I'm looking for a Markdown editor that looks and functions like a stripped down CkEditor text box, and that accepts and outputs Markdown. There should be a toolbar with a minimum set of formatting options (B, I, U, lists, ect), and the text entry area should show the converted Markdown, not the raw code. There should be a Source button that will allow users to edit the raw Markdown, but even that is optional. Ex:

I get the reason for Markdown/wiki, ect - the security it offers. I don't mind entering raw code like here at SE, but my users are not geeks and do not find this enjoyable. They don't want to see * * * ___ and spaces mixed in with their text. They are used to "Word" style editing, and are most productive in that environment.

So - is there a truly integrated WYSIWYG editor for Markdown? I'm writing in a PHP, so something that I can invoke with a class would be perfect.

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Sept 23, 2015 Update

CKEditor now has a Markdown addon that does this exact thing. The addon project is hosted on github.

Screenshots:

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Apr 13, 2015 Update
Someone professing to develop CKEditor says that the appearance of CommonMark is a game changer, and we could possibly see a proper markup interface for CKEditor (read comments for the full story).

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Feb 6, 2015 Update

CKEditor now comes with a plugin that outputs (and accepts as input) BBCode.

Demo: http://ckeditor.com/demo#bbcode

Answer 1

SimpleMDE, a newcomer, may be the answer. I've been searching for something just like this for a month now. I'm surprised that this does not show up higher in search results. I had to go through a notice on lepture/editor to find this.