# Getting started

> Install textlane and turn Markdown into HTML from Python.

## Install

```bash
pip install textlane
```

The wheel carries a prebuilt extension for your platform, so no Rust toolchain is needed.
Wheels cover Linux on glibc (manylinux) and musl (musllinux, Alpine), macOS and Windows,
each on x64 and arm64, for Python 3.9 or later.

## A first pipeline

A pipeline parses text into a tree, runs plugins over it and serializes the result. Each
plugin is a function in its domain's module: `textlane.md`, `textlane.html`, `textlane.mdx`
and `textlane.nl`.

```python
from textlane import html, md, textlane

file = (
    textlane()
    .use(md.parse())
    .use(md.to_html())
    .use(html.stringify())
    .process("# Hello *world*")
)
file["value"]
# <h1>Hello <em>world</em></h1>
```

`md.parse` reads Markdown into mdast, `md.to_html` turns it into hast and `html.stringify`
writes HTML. `process` returns the file; `await processor.aprocess(text)` is its
coroutine form.

## Adding syntax

Syntax extensions sit beside the parser. Add `md.gfm` for tables, task lists, strikethrough
and autolinks, `md.cjk_friendly` for emphasis next to Chinese, Japanese and Korean text, and
`md.frontmatter` to read a YAML block at the top:

```python
from textlane import html, md, textlane

file = (
    textlane()
    .use(md.parse())
    .use(md.gfm())
    .use(md.frontmatter())
    .use(md.to_html())
    .use(html.stringify())
    .process("---\ntitle: Notes\n---\n\n~~draft~~ done")
)
file["value"]
# <p><del>draft</del> done</p>
```

## Reading the result

The file is a dict holding the output as `value`, the `messages` plugins reported and the
`data` they set. Checks such as `nl.repeated_words` leave the text alone and report a
message:

```python
from textlane import md, nl, textlane

file = (
    textlane()
    .use(md.parse())
    .use(md.to_natural_language())
    .use(nl.repeated_words())
    .use(nl.stringify())
    .process("It is the the best.")
)
file["messages"][0]["reason"]
# Unexpected repeated `the`, remove one occurrence
```

Next, the [processor](/python/processor/) covers every method, and the plugin pages list
each plugin with its options.