There’s no good way around it. Anyone who wants to use the Markdown tool will have to be running the latest version of [Radio][1]. The reason is so that the UserTalk Markdown renderer written by [Marc Barrot][2] will work.
Marc’s script requires the kernelized `re` verb. This is only present in the Radio application v8.1 for the Mac. Currently [UserLand][4] is working on a new Windows build of the Radio application that will have the kernelized `re ` verb, but it’s not here yet.
There is a workaround and it’s what we currently use. Every Mac OS X user has Perl installed in a default OS installation. We can access it for rendering utilizing the [Markdown.pl][3] script and the `sys.unixShellCommand` script. Windows users currently have to install ActivePerl for the rendering to work and have to have a copy of [Frontier][5] lying about for the `ScriptControlDLL.dll` to function. It seems a bit involved for the average user to figure out.
> Update: Windows users only need to have ActivePerl, `ScriptControlDLL.dll`, and `COMDll.dll` installed.
Once the new Windows build is out I think I’ll remove the ability to run the Markdown tool without using the default UserTalk Markdown renderer. If you think this is the wrong move let me know. Nothing’s set in stone. But my options are to just let the tool not render and leave an message in the Event Log or just fail in the installation script.
[1]: http://radio.userland.com
[2]: http://radio.weblogs.com/0104487/
[3]: http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown
[4]: http://www.userland.com
[5]: http://frontier.userland.com