pandoc is a free open source software for converting
documents from many filetypes to many filetypes. For
details, see http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/.
Credit: the code in this function is based on GERGELY
DAROCZIs coding in his answer on the Q&A forum
StackOverflow, and also G. Grothendieck for the non-XML
addition to the function. I thank them both!