Reading notes for Code Fellows!
Markdown is a popular, light type of markup language used to add formatting to the text of plain-text documents. Since it’s creation by John Gruber in 2004 it has become one of the most popular markup languages.
Unlike a plain text editor or word processing program, which shows text formatting in the document as it is entered by the user in a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get manner, Markdown uses specific text characters arranged in a predescribed pattern, or syntax, interspersed within the actual text content of the document. A program such as GitHub Pages interprets these characters and syntax and displays the contextual text with the formatting the syntax indicates. In this way the size, boldness, and arrangement of the text can be altered to be presented in the manner the writer wishes when displayed by such a program. Markdown also permist the user to add links and images into the document easily.
Unlike using a shortcut like CTRL+B or CTRL+I to make text bold or italicized in a word-processing program, the syntax for writing the sentence:
This word is bold and this word is italicized.
…would be as follows in Markdown:
This word is **bold** and this word is *italicized*.
| Effect | Markdown Syntax | Displayed by GitHub Pages |
|---|---|---|
| Strikethrough | ~~Wrong~~ | |
| Link | [Link](link) | Link |
| In-line code | `var num =5` | var num = 5 |