For short blog posts, it's often more convenient to write a snippet of Markdown than the corresponding HTML. Here's one workflow to achieve that with minimal fuss.
Write your MD:
Wintergatan's [Marble Machine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q) from 2016 is very cool. It is also the conceptual copy of Animusic's [Pipe Dreams](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X4c5uHMQfE) from [2001](https://history.siggraph.org/svr-issue/issue-138-siggraph-2001-electronic-theater-program/).
Copy the text to the clipboard, and then:
pbpaste | python markdown -m
Wintergatan's Marble Machine from 2016 is very cool. It is also the conceptual copy of Animusic's Pipe Dreams from 2001.
I have a tiny PHP snippet that adds the surrounding HTML required by the website template:
#!/usr/bin/env php
<article>
<time datetime="<?= date('Y-m-d') ?>"></time>
<section>
<?= stream_get_contents(STDIN) ?>
</section>
</article>
Which can be slipped into the command chain like thus:
pbpaste | python markdown -m | ~/bin/new/article | pbcopy
One could then replace the trailing pbcopy with something that adds it to the actual page, but that's already a bit too much automation for my tastes.
Standard IO is truly one of the visionary architectural innovations of Unix. Unfortunately, I feel it's true power hasn't fully been grasped by even many pros in the IT industry. It's kind of baffling that after all these decades, the only functional analogue in the GUI world is the copy/paste command.
