Is there any API or documentation that would help my adding functionality to Q&A textareas?

Question

I'm writing an userscript that should add some functionality to the main textarea (WMD) used to post and edit answers and questions. The functionality will usually need to do things like insert text on caret position, do something with selection and so on.

I'm pretty sure these features are already abstractly implemented in the script associated with the textarea. How can I figure what functions should I call?

Answer 1

The markdown code supposedly lives at the pagedown project on code.google.com. (Reference)

You may also find these files to be useful:

• The commented, human readable version of wmd.js
• The commented, human readable version of full.js

---

Personally, I find it easier to just use normal <textarea> processing followed by a call to StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.refreshAllPreviews(). You can see that in action in this handy userscript.

StackExchange.MarkdownEditor has these tempting functions (¿not particularly documented?):

• balanceTags()
• refreshAllPreviews()
• sanitizeHtml()

---

_{Tangential PS: To help with related searches...}

WMD stands for Wysiwym MarkDown.

From wmd-editor.com (archived):

So WMD is something new: a Wysiwym Markdown editor.

• Wysiwym stands for What You See Is What You Mean. WMD produces clean semantic HTML, leaving presentation details like fonts and colors up to style sheets. But you're not left in the dark about cosmetics; as you type, WMD's live preview shows you exactly what your text will look like after the current styles have been applied.