parsing - How to parse Markdown in PHP?

Question

First, I know, there already is a Markdown parser for PHP. I also took a look to this question but it doesn't answer to my question.

Obviously, even if the title mention PHP, if it's language agnostic, because I'd like to know what are the step I've to go through to do that.

I've read about PEG, but I've to admit, I didn't really understand the example provided with the PHP parser.

I've also read about CFG.

I've found Zend_Markup_Parser_Textile which seems to construct a so called "Token Tree" (what's about it?) but it currently unusable. (Btw, Textile is not Markdown)

So, concretely, how would you go to this?

Obviously I though about using Regex but, I'm afraid.

Because Markdown supports several syntaxes for the same element (Setext and atx).

Could you give some starting point?

Answer 1

You should have a look at Parsedown.

It parses Markdown text the way people do. First, it divides texts into lines. Then it looks at how these lines start and relate to each other. Finally, it looks for special characters to identify inline elements.