Remarks#

Variations of Markdown with differing syntax are called “flavors.” Markdown flavors are listed at https://github.com/jgm/CommonMark/wiki/Markdown-Flavors.

A Markdown flavor can be implemented in various programming languages and software applications. Libraries that implement a Markdown parser are listed at https://github.com/markdown/markdown.github.com/wiki/Implementations and https://www.w3.org/community/markdown/wiki/MarkdownImplementations.

Several Markdown flavors, and the differences between them, are documented at https://flavoredmarkdown.com.

To test and compare Markdown code in many different flavors, and implementations of those flavors, you can use the online tool Babelmark.

Stack Overflow Markdown

This is the flavor of markdown that’s used by Stack Overflow and other Stack Exchange sites. When you answer a question or add documentation you use this markdown. This answer is made out of SO markdown

See Official Documentation

The main things that SO markdown adds are under “Stack Exchange additions” on that webpage. In particular, SO adds tags like [tag:tag] and shortcut links like [meta] (not in docs though), spoilers:

! This is a spoiler

>! This is a spoiler

and custom language devotions

<!-- language: java -->
```
This text is formatted as if it were Java code
```

This text is formatted as if it were Java code

Doxygen Markdown

Doxygen is a commonly used code documentation tool (for languages including C++, C# and Java) that also supports the use of Markdown. In addition to the standard Markdown syntax, there are a number of Doxygen-specific elements.

The primary features are the use of @ref tags for references, and the @page, @section/@subsection and @anchor elements that these can reference.

@ref <name> [“text”]

This element creates a link (ie. reference) to a named section, subsection, page or anchor that has been defined elsewhere in the documentation. (see Doxygen reference)

The first parameter (name) should match the name of the section, subsection, page or anchor that you wish to link to.

The second optional parameter ("text") should be encapsulated in double quotes, and will define what the reference link will appear as on the page. If not used, the link will appear as the title used in the reference.

@section <section-name> (section title)

This element defines a section name. It is visually equivalent to a # element in Markdown, however it will also define a reference that can be linked to from other sections of your documentation. (see Doxygen reference)

The first parameter section-name defines the reference name that can be used by the @ref element. This cannot contain any spaces.

The second parameter section title is a string of words (that can be separated by spaces) which defines what the section heading will appear as on your page.

Example

@section Intro Introduction

This is some text in my introduction.

@section Body Body Paragraph

This is some text in my body, where I refer to the @ref Intro.

Output

Introduction

This is some text in my introduction.

Body Paragraph

This is some text in my body, where I refer to the Introduction.

NB: The word Introduction above will appear as a link that will jump to the Introduction heading.

GitHub Flavored Markdown

GitHub Flavored Markdown (sometimes abbreviated to GFM) makes it easier to work with markdown on GitHub.com.

Key features of GFM include:

• code indentation
• task list support
• easy GitHub issue referencing
• automatic GitHub username and SHA detection
• automatic url detection
• emoji support

GFM examples

Syntax highlighting

With Markdown, a block of code can be generated with three backticks:

```

Without syntax highlighting, code written in C appears like this

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
    printf("Hello World\n");
    return (0);
}

However, with syntax highlighting, code written in C appears like this:

In order to highlight code, simply add an optional language identifier to enable syntax highlighting in your fenced code block.

```C
<code text here>
```

These enhancements are designed to improve the quality of documentation and conversation included in README files, gists, pull requests and issues on the platform.