Once we have an APL document object model, it is natural to want a Markdown to DOM function. While there are a zillion third party markdown libraries, none of them will create an APLDOM directly, and, more importantly, there are advantages to having an easily modified, pure APL, no-dependency solution.

This Parse function takes an array of Markdown lines and returns an array of HTML elements:

Parse←{
     ⍝ ⍵ ←→ MarkDown
     ⍝   ←→ Array of HTML obs
     ⍝ f ←→ Paragraph|Table|Code|Header
     0=≢⍵:''
     ⎕THIS.H←##.Main
     s←InitState ⍵
     t b←↓⍉↑s ProcessLine¨⍳≢⍵
     ~1∊b:''
     p←b⊆⍵
     f←(b>¯1↓0,b)/t
     f{(⍎⍺)⍵}¨p
 }

It first initializes a namespace to hold the state as we step through each line:

InitState←{
     s←⎕NS''
     s.Lines←⍵
     s.InParagraph←0
     s.InTable←0
     s.InCode←0
     s.InList←0
     s.InBlockQuote←0
     s.InPullQuote←0
     s
 }

We toss the entire set of lines in there as well, so we can inspect a subsequent line if necessary (for lists , if nothing else, it appears this is needed). Then we process each line, to determine the type and location of top-level objects or blocks:

ProcessLine←{
     ⍝ ⍵ ←→ Line Number
     ⍝ ⍺ ←→ State
     ⍝   ←→ Partition Vector
     l←⍵⊃⍺.Lines
     ⍺.InParagraph:''(⍺.InParagraph←l≢'')
     ⍺.InCode:''(1⊣⍺.InCode←'~~~'≢3↑l)
     ⍺.InTable:''(⍺.InTable←'|'=⊃l)
     ⍺.InBlockQuote:''(⍺.InBlockQuote←'> '≡2↑l)
     ⍺.InPullQuote:''(⍺.InPullQuote←'^ '≡2↑l)
     ⍺.InList:''(⍺.InList←⍺ StillInList ⍵)
     ''≡l:'' 0
     '~~~'≡3↑l:'Code'(⍺.InCode←1)
     '|'=⊃l:'Table'(⍺.InTable←1)
     '> '≡2↑l:'BlockQuote'(⍺.InBlockQuote←1)
     '∧ '≡2↑l:'PullQuote'(⍺.InPullQuote←1)
     '#'=⊃l:'Header' 1
     '!'=⊃l:'Image' 1
     IsListItem l:'List'(⍺.InList←1)
     1:'Paragraph'(⍺.InParagraph←1)
 }

For each line, if we are not in an object already, we find out what object is starting, and return the type of the object and a 1 to indicate it is starting. If we are already in an object, then we determine whether the line being processed is still a member of that object. The object type is also the name of a function that will be called to convert the block of lines into an array of HTML element objects.

Consider the following Markdown:

# MarkDown List                                         
                                                        
A list follows:                                         
                                                        
- Item 1                                                
    This is detail on item 1.                           
- Item 2                                                
    This is detail on item 2,                           
    and note there is no detail on the following item 3.
- Item 3                                                
                                                        
This is a trailing paragraph,                           
it should not be lost       

The result of ProcessLine tells us the type of object and flags the locations with 1-maps:

      ↑s ProcessLine¨⍳≢⍵
 Header     1
            0
 Paragraph  1
            0
 List       1
            1
            1
            1
            1
            1
            0
 Paragraph  1
            1

Note that this partition technique requires a blank line between objects. Now we can apply the appropriate function to each partition. For example, the Paragraph function creates a new paragraph element object, and sets its content after adding any in-line markup:

Paragraph←{
     l←1↓⊃,/' ',¨⍵
     H.New'p'(InLine l)
 }

While the List function, and its subfunction ListItem, creates a list element and must recursively parse the content:

List←{
     t←↑⍵
     p←(' '≠t[;0])⊂⍵
     l←('-'∊t[;0])⊃'ol' 'ul'
     H.New l(ListItem¨p)
 }
ListItem←{
     t←{⍵↓⍨1+⍵⍳' '}⊃⍵
     i←H.New'li't
     1=≢⍵:i
     i.Content,←Parse 4↓¨1↓⍵
     i
 }

The code above is by no means a comprehensive markdown processor. Many features can and will be easily added, but we are generally not concerned with handling every little issue or variation that may be present in Markdown files out in the wild.