+ (NSString *)htmlFromMarkdown:(NSString *)markdown {
  NSTask *markdownTask = [[NSTask alloc] init];
  [markdownTask setLaunchPath:@"/usr/bin/perl"];
  [markdownTask setArguments:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:[[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"Markdown" ofType:@"pl"], nil]];
  NSPipe *markdownPipe = [NSPipe pipe];
  NSPipe *htmlPipe = [NSPipe pipe];
  [markdownTask setStandardInput:markdownPipe];
  [markdownTask setStandardOutput:htmlPipe];
  [markdownTask launch];
  NSData *markdownData = [markdown dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
  [[markdownPipe fileHandleForWriting] writeData:markdownData];
  [[markdownPipe fileHandleForWriting] closeFile];
  NSString *output = [[[NSString alloc] initWithData:[[htmlPipe fileHandleForReading] readDataToEndOfFile] encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding] autorelease];
  [markdownTask waitUntilExit];
  [markdownTask release];
  return output;
}

Simply make sure you have `Markdown.pl` (from Daring Fireball) inside of your application bundle's resources folder. Perl has to be installed on the target machine. If you are developing for iOS, you should build Perl for iOS, pack it with the application and change the `markdownTask`'s launch path.

Parsing Markdown with Objective-C using the original Perl script

Objective C