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| author | Waylan Limberg <waylan@gmail.com> | 2010-02-12 15:27:59 -0500 |
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| committer | Waylan Limberg <waylan@gmail.com> | 2010-02-12 15:27:59 -0500 |
| commit | 8f62bb0a6ce46055a2decbae6b33d53922c758b8 (patch) | |
| tree | 7f7d71461ad32817a86d48083934fbb972df38ed /MarkdownTest/Tests_2004/Markdown Documentation - Syntax.text | |
| parent | ee6fb73b160721e666e72a0921135d6abae19fa4 (diff) | |
| parent | 6d30c9ff6b43be9f013e6ea129ff7611c4a6d55b (diff) | |
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diff --git a/MarkdownTest/Tests_2004/Markdown Documentation - Syntax.text b/MarkdownTest/Tests_2004/Markdown Documentation - Syntax.text deleted file mode 100644 index dabd75c..0000000 --- a/MarkdownTest/Tests_2004/Markdown Documentation - Syntax.text +++ /dev/null @@ -1,888 +0,0 @@ -Markdown: Syntax -================ - -<ul id="ProjectSubmenu"> - <li><a href="/projects/markdown/" title="Markdown Project Page">Main</a></li> - <li><a href="/projects/markdown/basics" title="Markdown Basics">Basics</a></li> - <li><a class="selected" title="Markdown Syntax Documentation">Syntax</a></li> - <li><a href="/projects/markdown/license" title="Pricing and License Information">License</a></li> - <li><a href="/projects/markdown/dingus" title="Online Markdown Web Form">Dingus</a></li> -</ul> - - -* [Overview](#overview) - * [Philosophy](#philosophy) - * [Inline HTML](#html) - * [Automatic Escaping for Special Characters](#autoescape) -* [Block Elements](#block) - * [Paragraphs and Line Breaks](#p) - * [Headers](#header) - * [Blockquotes](#blockquote) - * [Lists](#list) - * [Code Blocks](#precode) - * [Horizontal Rules](#hr) -* [Span Elements](#span) - * [Links](#link) - * [Emphasis](#em) - * [Code](#code) - * [Images](#img) -* [Miscellaneous](#misc) - * [Backslash Escapes](#backslash) - * [Automatic Links](#autolink) - - -**Note:** This document is itself written using Markdown; you -can [see the source for it by adding '.text' to the URL][src]. - - [src]: /projects/markdown/syntax.text - -* * * - -<h2 id="overview">Overview</h2> - -<h3 id="philosophy">Philosophy</h3> - -Markdown is intended to be as easy-to-read and easy-to-write as is feasible. - -Readability, however, is emphasized above all else. A Markdown-formatted -document should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without looking -like it's been marked up with tags or formatting instructions. While -Markdown's syntax has been influenced by several existing text-to-HTML -filters -- including [Setext] [1], [atx] [2], [Textile] [3], [reStructuredText] [4], -[Grutatext] [5], and [EtText] [6] -- the single biggest source of -inspiration for Markdown's syntax is the format of plain text email. - - [1]: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/mirror/setext.html - [2]: http://www.aaronsw.com/2002/atx/ - [3]: http://textism.com/tools/textile/ - [4]: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html - [5]: http://www.triptico.com/software/grutatxt.html - [6]: http://ettext.taint.org/doc/ - -To this end, Markdown's syntax is comprised entirely of punctuation -characters, which punctuation characters have been carefully chosen so -as to look like what they mean. E.g., asterisks around a word actually -look like \*emphasis\*. Markdown lists look like, well, lists. Even -blockquotes look like quoted passages of text, assuming you've ever -used email. - - - -<h3 id="html">Inline HTML</h3> - -Markdown's syntax is intended for one purpose: to be used as a -format for *writing* for the web. - -Markdown is not a replacement for HTML, or even close to it. Its -syntax is very small, corresponding only to a very small subset of -HTML tags. The idea is *not* to create a syntax that makes it easier -to insert HTML tags. In my opinion, HTML tags are already easy to -insert. The idea for Markdown is to make it easy to read, write, and -edit prose. HTML is a *publishing* format; Markdown is a *writing* -format. Thus, Markdown's formatting syntax only addresses issues that -can be conveyed in plain text. - -For any markup that is not covered by Markdown's syntax, you simply -use HTML itself. There's no need to preface it or delimit it to -indicate that you're switching from Markdown to HTML; you just use -the tags. - -The only restrictions are that block-level HTML elements -- e.g. `<div>`, -`<table>`, `<pre>`, `<p>`, etc. -- must be separated from surrounding -content by blank lines, and the start and end tags of the block should -not be indented with tabs or spaces. Markdown is smart enough not -to add extra (unwanted) `<p>` tags around HTML block-level tags. - -For example, to add an HTML table to a Markdown article: - - This is a regular paragraph. - - <table> - <tr> - <td>Foo</td> - </tr> - </table> - - This is another regular paragraph. - -Note that Markdown formatting syntax is not processed within block-level -HTML tags. E.g., you can't use Markdown-style `*emphasis*` inside an -HTML block. - -Span-level HTML tags -- e.g. `<span>`, `<cite>`, or `<del>` -- can be -used anywhere in a Markdown paragraph, list item, or header. If you -want, you can even use HTML tags instead of Markdown formatting; e.g. if -you'd prefer to use HTML `<a>` or `<img>` tags instead of Markdown's -link or image syntax, go right ahead. - -Unlike block-level HTML tags, Markdown syntax *is* processed within -span-level tags. - - -<h3 id="autoescape">Automatic Escaping for Special Characters</h3> - -In HTML, there are two characters that demand special treatment: `<` -and `&`. Left angle brackets are used to start tags; ampersands are -used to denote HTML entities. If you want to use them as literal -characters, you must escape them as entities, e.g. `<`, and -`&`. - -Ampersands in particular are bedeviling for web writers. If you want to -write about 'AT&T', you need to write '`AT&T`'. You even need to -escape ampersands within URLs. Thus, if you want to link to: - - http://images.google.com/images?num=30&q=larry+bird - -you need to encode the URL as: - - http://images.google.com/images?num=30&q=larry+bird - -in your anchor tag `href` attribute. Needless to say, this is easy to -forget, and is probably the single most common source of HTML validation -errors in otherwise well-marked-up web sites. - -Markdown allows you to use these characters naturally, taking care of -all the necessary escaping for you. If you use an ampersand as part of -an HTML entity, it remains unchanged; otherwise it will be translated -into `&`. - -So, if you want to include a copyright symbol in your article, you can write: - - © - -and Markdown will leave it alone. But if you write: - - AT&T - -Markdown will translate it to: - - AT&T - -Similarly, because Markdown supports [inline HTML](#html), if you use -angle brackets as delimiters for HTML tags, Markdown will treat them as -such. But if you write: - - 4 < 5 - -Markdown will translate it to: - - 4 < 5 - -However, inside Markdown code spans and blocks, angle brackets and -ampersands are *always* encoded automatically. This makes it easy to use -Markdown to write about HTML code. (As opposed to raw HTML, which is a -terrible format for writing about HTML syntax, because every single `<` -and `&` in your example code needs to be escaped.) - - -* * * - - -<h2 id="block">Block Elements</h2> - - -<h3 id="p">Paragraphs and Line Breaks</h3> - -A paragraph is simply one or more consecutive lines of text, separated -by one or more blank lines. (A blank line is any line that looks like a -blank line -- a line containing nothing but spaces or tabs is considered -blank.) Normal paragraphs should not be intended with spaces or tabs. - -The implication of the "one or more consecutive lines of text" rule is -that Markdown supports "hard-wrapped" text paragraphs. This differs -significantly from most other text-to-HTML formatters (including Movable -Type's "Convert Line Breaks" option) which translate every line break -character in a paragraph into a `<br />` tag. - -When you *do* want to insert a `<br />` break tag using Markdown, you -end a line with two or more spaces, then type return. - -Yes, this takes a tad more effort to create a `<br />`, but a simplistic -"every line break is a `<br />`" rule wouldn't work for Markdown. -Markdown's email-style [blockquoting][bq] and multi-paragraph [list items][l] -work best -- and look better -- when you format them with hard breaks. - - [bq]: #blockquote - [l]: #list - - - -<h3 id="header">Headers</h3> - -Markdown supports two styles of headers, [Setext] [1] and [atx] [2]. - -Setext-style headers are "underlined" using equal signs (for first-level -headers) and dashes (for second-level headers). For example: - - This is an H1 - ============= - - This is an H2 - ------------- - -Any number of underlining `=`'s or `-`'s will work. - -Atx-style headers use 1-6 hash characters at the start of the line, -corresponding to header levels 1-6. For example: - - # This is an H1 - - ## This is an H2 - - ###### This is an H6 - -Optionally, you may "close" atx-style headers. This is purely -cosmetic -- you can use this if you think it looks better. The -closing hashes don't even need to match the number of hashes -used to open the header. (The number of opening hashes -determines the header level.) : - - # This is an H1 # - - ## This is an H2 ## - - ### This is an H3 ###### - - -<h3 id="blockquote">Blockquotes</h3> - -Markdown uses email-style `>` characters for blockquoting. If you're -familiar with quoting passages of text in an email message, then you -know how to create a blockquote in Markdown. It looks best if you hard -wrap the text and put a `>` before every line: - - > This is a blockquote with two paragraphs. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, - > consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam hendrerit mi posuere lectus. - > Vestibulum enim wisi, viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus. - > - > Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet velit. Suspendisse - > id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing. - -Markdown allows you to be lazy and only put the `>` before the first -line of a hard-wrapped paragraph: - - > This is a blockquote with two paragraphs. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, - consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam hendrerit mi posuere lectus. - Vestibulum enim wisi, viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus. - - > Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet velit. Suspendisse - id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing. - -Blockquotes can be nested (i.e. a blockquote-in-a-blockquote) by -adding additional levels of `>`: - - > This is the first level of quoting. - > - > > This is nested blockquote. - > - > Back to the first level. - -Blockquotes can contain other Markdown elements, including headers, lists, -and code blocks: - - > ## This is a header. - > - > 1. This is the first list item. - > 2. This is the second list item. - > - > Here's some example code: - > - > return shell_exec("echo $input | $markdown_script"); - -Any decent text editor should make email-style quoting easy. For -example, with BBEdit, you can make a selection and choose Increase -Quote Level from the Text menu. - - -<h3 id="list">Lists</h3> - -Markdown supports ordered (numbered) and unordered (bulleted) lists. - -Unordered lists use asterisks, pluses, and hyphens -- interchangably --- as list markers: - - * Red - * Green - * Blue - -is equivalent to: - - + Red - + Green - + Blue - -and: - - - Red - - Green - - Blue - -Ordered lists use numbers followed by periods: - - 1. Bird - 2. McHale - 3. Parish - -It's important to note that the actual numbers you use to mark the -list have no effect on the HTML output Markdown produces. The HTML -Markdown produces from the above list is: - - <ol> - <li>Bird</li> - <li>McHale</li> - <li>Parish</li> - </ol> - -If you instead wrote the list in Markdown like this: - - 1. Bird - 1. McHale - 1. Parish - -or even: - - 3. Bird - 1. McHale - 8. Parish - -you'd get the exact same HTML output. The point is, if you want to, -you can use ordinal numbers in your ordered Markdown lists, so that -the numbers in your source match the numbers in your published HTML. -But if you want to be lazy, you don't have to. - -If you do use lazy list numbering, however, you should still start the -list with the number 1. At some point in the future, Markdown may support -starting ordered lists at an arbitrary number. - -List markers typically start at the left margin, but may be indented by -up to three spaces. List markers must be followed by one or more spaces -or a tab. - -To make lists look nice, you can wrap items with hanging indents: - - * Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. - Aliquam hendrerit mi posuere lectus. Vestibulum enim wisi, - viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus. - * Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet velit. - Suspendisse id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing. - -But if you want to be lazy, you don't have to: - - * Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. - Aliquam hendrerit mi posuere lectus. Vestibulum enim wisi, - viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus. - * Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet velit. - Suspendisse id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing. - -If list items are separated by blank lines, Markdown will wrap the -items in `<p>` tags in the HTML output. For example, this input: - - * Bird - * Magic - -will turn into: - - <ul> - <li>Bird</li> - <li>Magic</li> - </ul> - -But this: - - * Bird - - * Magic - -will turn into: - - <ul> - <li><p>Bird</p></li> - <li><p>Magic</p></li> - </ul> - -List items may consist of multiple paragraphs. Each subsequent -paragraph in a list item must be intended by either 4 spaces -or one tab: - - 1. This is a list item with two paragraphs. Lorem ipsum dolor - sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam hendrerit - mi posuere lectus. - - Vestibulum enim wisi, viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet - vitae, risus. Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum - sit amet velit. - - 2. Suspendisse id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing. - -It looks nice if you indent every line of the subsequent -paragraphs, but here again, Markdown will allow you to be -lazy: - - * This is a list item with two paragraphs. - - This is the second paragraph in the list item. You're - only required to indent the first line. Lorem ipsum dolor - sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. - - * Another item in the same list. - -To put a blockquote within a list item, the blockquote's `>` -delimiters need to be indented: - - * A list item with a blockquote: - - > This is a blockquote - > inside a list item. - -To put a code block within a list item, the code block needs -to be indented *twice* -- 8 spaces or two tabs: - - * A list item with a code block: - - <code goes here> - - -It's worth noting that it's possible to trigger an ordered list by -accident, by writing something like this: - - 1986. What a great season. - -In other words, a *number-period-space* sequence at the beginning of a -line. To avoid this, you can backslash-escape the period: - - 1986\. What a great season. - - - -<h3 id="precode">Code Blocks</h3> - -Pre-formatted code blocks are used for writing about programming or -markup source code. Rather than forming normal paragraphs, the lines -of a code block are interpreted literally. Markdown wraps a code block -in both `<pre>` and `<code>` tags. - -To produce a code block in Markdown, simply indent every line of the -block by at least 4 spaces or 1 tab. For example, given this input: - - This is a normal paragraph: - - This is a code block. - -Markdown will generate: - - <p>This is a normal paragraph:</p> - - <pre><code>This is a code block. - </code></pre> - -One level of indentation -- 4 spaces or 1 tab -- is removed from each -line of the code block. For example, this: - - Here is an example of AppleScript: - - tell application "Foo" - beep - end tell - -will turn into: - - <p>Here is an example of AppleScript:</p> - - <pre><code>tell application "Foo" - beep - end tell - </code></pre> - -A code block continues until it reaches a line that is not indented -(or the end of the article). - -Within a code block, ampersands (`&`) and angle brackets (`<` and `>`) -are automatically converted into HTML entities. This makes it very -easy to include example HTML source code using Markdown -- just paste -it and indent it, and Markdown will handle the hassle of encoding the -ampersands and angle brackets. For example, this: - - <div class="footer"> - © 2004 Foo Corporation - </div> - -will turn into: - - <pre><code><div class="footer"> - &copy; 2004 Foo Corporation - </div> - </code></pre> - -Regular Markdown syntax is not processed within code blocks. E.g., -asterisks are just literal asterisks within a code block. This means -it's also easy to use Markdown to write about Markdown's own syntax. - - - -<h3 id="hr">Horizontal Rules</h3> - -You can produce a horizontal rule tag (`<hr />`) by placing three or -more hyphens, asterisks, or underscores on a line by themselves. If you -wish, you may use spaces between the hyphens or asterisks. Each of the -following lines will produce a horizontal rule: - - * * * - - *** - - ***** - - - - - - - --------------------------------------- - - _ _ _ - - -* * * - -<h2 id="span">Span Elements</h2> - -<h3 id="link">Links</h3> - -Markdown supports two style of links: *inline* and *reference*. - -In both styles, the link text is delimited by [square brackets]. - -To create an inline link, use a set of regular parentheses immediately -after the link text's closing square bracket. Inside the parentheses, -put the URL where you want the link to point, along with an *optional* -title for the link, surrounded in quotes. For example: - - This is [an example](http://example.com/ "Title") inline link. - - [This link](http://example.net/) has no title attribute. - -Will produce: - - <p>This is <a href="http://example.com/" title="Title"> - an example</a> inline link.</p> - - <p><a href="http://example.net/">This link</a> has no - title attribute.</p> - -If you're referring to a local resource on the same server, you can -use relative paths: - - See my [About](/about/) page for details. - -Reference-style links use a second set of square brackets, inside -which you place a label of your choosing to identify the link: - - This is [an example][id] reference-style link. - -You can optionally use a space to separate the sets of brackets: - - This is [an example] [id] reference-style link. - -Then, anywhere in the document, you define your link label like this, -on a line by itself: - - [id]: http://example.com/ "Optional Title Here" - -That is: - -* Square brackets containing the link identifier (optionally - indented from the left margin using up to three spaces); -* followed by a colon; -* followed by one or more spaces (or tabs); -* followed by the URL for the link; -* optionally followed by a title attribute for the link, enclosed - in double or single quotes. - -The link URL may, optionally, be surrounded by angle brackets: - - [id]: <http://example.com/> "Optional Title Here" - -You can put the title attribute on the next line and use extra spaces -or tabs for padding, which tends to look better with longer URLs: - - [id]: http://example.com/longish/path/to/resource/here - "Optional Title Here" - -Link definitions are only used for creating links during Markdown -processing, and are stripped from your document in the HTML output. - -Link definition names may constist of letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation -- but they are *not* case sensitive. E.g. these two links: - - [link text][a] - [link text][A] - -are equivalent. - -The *implicit link name* shortcut allows you to omit the name of the -link, in which case the link text itself is used as the name. -Just use an empty set of square brackets -- e.g., to link the word -"Google" to the google.com web site, you could simply write: - - [Google][] - -And then define the link: - - [Google]: http://google.com/ - -Because link names may contain spaces, this shortcut even works for -multiple words in the link text: - - Visit [Daring Fireball][] for more information. - -And then define the link: - - [Daring Fireball]: http://daringfireball.net/ - -Link definitions can be placed anywhere in your Markdown document. I -tend to put them immediately after each paragraph in which they're -used, but if you want, you can put them all at the end of your -document, sort of like footnotes. - -Here's an example of reference links in action: - - I get 10 times more traffic from [Google] [1] than from - [Yahoo] [2] or [MSN] [3]. - - [1]: http://google.com/ "Google" - [2]: http://search.yahoo.com/ "Yahoo Search" - [3]: http://search.msn.com/ "MSN Search" - -Using the implicit link name shortcut, you could instead write: - - I get 10 times more traffic from [Google][] than from - [Yahoo][] or [MSN][]. - - [google]: http://google.com/ "Google" - [yahoo]: http://search.yahoo.com/ "Yahoo Search" - [msn]: http://search.msn.com/ "MSN Search" - -Both of the above examples will produce the following HTML output: - - <p>I get 10 times more traffic from <a href="http://google.com/" - title="Google">Google</a> than from - <a href="http://search.yahoo.com/" title="Yahoo Search">Yahoo</a> - or <a href="http://search.msn.com/" title="MSN Search">MSN</a>.</p> - -For comparison, here is the same paragraph written using -Markdown's inline link style: - - I get 10 times more traffic from [Google](http://google.com/ "Google") - than from [Yahoo](http://search.yahoo.com/ "Yahoo Search") or - [MSN](http://search.msn.com/ "MSN Search"). - -The point of reference-style links is not that they're easier to -write. The point is that with reference-style links, your document -source is vastly more readable. Compare the above examples: using -reference-style links, the paragraph itself is only 81 characters -long; with inline-style links, it's 176 characters; and as raw HTML, -it's 234 characters. In the raw HTML, there's more markup than there -is text. - -With Markdown's reference-style links, a source document much more -closely resembles the final output, as rendered in a browser. By -allowing you to move the markup-related metadata out of the paragraph, -you can add links without interrupting the narrative flow of your -prose. - - -<h3 id="em">Emphasis</h3> - -Markdown treats asterisks (`*`) and underscores (`_`) as indicators of -emphasis. Text wrapped with one `*` or `_` will be wrapped with an -HTML `<em>` tag; double `*`'s or `_`'s will be wrapped with an HTML -`<strong>` tag. E.g., this input: - - *single asterisks* - - _single underscores_ - - **double asterisks** - - __double underscores__ - -will produce: - - <em>single asterisks</em> - - <em>single underscores</em> - - <strong>double asterisks</strong> - - <strong>double underscores</strong> - -You can use whichever style you prefer; the lone restriction is that -the same character must be used to open and close an emphasis span. - -Emphasis can be used in the middle of a word: - - un*fucking*believable - -But if you surround an `*` or `_` with spaces, it'll be treated as a -literal asterisk or underscore. - -To produce a literal asterisk or underscore at a position where it -would otherwise be used as an emphasis delimiter, you can backslash -escape it: - - \*this text is surrounded by literal asterisks\* - - - -<h3 id="code">Code</h3> - -To indicate a span of code, wrap it with backtick quotes (`` ` ``). -Unlike a pre-formatted code block, a code span indicates code within a -normal paragraph. For example: - - Use the `printf()` function. - -will produce: - - <p>Use the <code>printf()</code> function.</p> - -To include a literal backtick character within a code span, you can use -multiple backticks as the opening and closing delimiters: - - ``There is a literal backtick (`) here.`` - -which will produce this: - - <p><code>There is a literal backtick (`) here.</code></p> - -The backtick delimiters surrounding a code span may include spaces -- -one after the opening, one before the closing. This allows you to place -literal backtick characters at the beginning or end of a code span: - - A single backtick in a code span: `` ` `` - - A backtick-delimited string in a code span: `` `foo` `` - -will produce: - - <p>A single backtick in a code span: <code>`</code></p> - - <p>A backtick-delimited string in a code span: <code>`foo`</code></p> - -With a code span, ampersands and angle brackets are encoded as HTML -entities automatically, which makes it easy to include example HTML -tags. Markdown will turn this: - - Please don't use any `<blink>` tags. - -into: - - <p>Please don't use any <code><blink></code> tags.</p> - -You can write this: - - `—` is the decimal-encoded equivalent of `—`. - -to produce: - - <p><code>&#8212;</code> is the decimal-encoded - equivalent of <code>&mdash;</code>.</p> - - - -<h3 id="img">Images</h3> - -Admittedly, it's fairly difficult to devise a "natural" syntax for -placing images into a plain text document format. - -Markdown uses an image syntax that is intended to resemble the syntax -for links, allowing for two styles: *inline* and *reference*. - -Inline image syntax looks like this: - -  - -  - -That is: - -* An exclamation mark: `!`; -* followed by a set of square brackets, containing the `alt` - attribute text for the image; -* followed by a set of parentheses, containing the URL or path to - the image, and an optional `title` attribute enclosed in double - or single quotes. - -Reference-style image syntax looks like this: - - ![Alt text][id] - -Where "id" is the name of a defined image reference. Image references -are defined using syntax identical to link references: - - [id]: url/to/image "Optional title attribute" - -As of this writing, Markdown has no syntax for specifying the -dimensions of an image; if this is important to you, you can simply -use regular HTML `<img>` tags. - - -* * * - - -<h2 id="misc">Miscellaneous</h2> - -<h3 id="autolink">Automatic Links</h3> - -Markdown supports a shortcut style for creating "automatic" links for URLs and email addresses: simply surround the URL or email address with angle brackets. What this means is that if you want to show the actual text of a URL or email address, and also have it be a clickable link, you can do this: - - <http://example.com/> - -Markdown will turn this into: - - <a href="http://example.com/">http://example.com/</a> - -Automatic links for email addresses work similarly, except that -Markdown will also perform a bit of randomized decimal and hex -entity-encoding to help obscure your address from address-harvesting -spambots. For example, Markdown will turn this: - - <address@example.com> - -into something like this: - - <a href="mailto:addre - ss@example.co - m">address@exa - mple.com</a> - -which will render in a browser as a clickable link to "address@example.com". - -(This sort of entity-encoding trick will indeed fool many, if not -most, address-harvesting bots, but it definitely won't fool all of -them. It's better than nothing, but an address published in this way -will probably eventually start receiving spam.) - - - -<h3 id="backslash">Backslash Escapes</h3> - -Markdown allows you to use backslash escapes to generate literal -characters which would otherwise have special meaning in Markdown's -formatting syntax. For example, if you wanted to surround a word with -literal asterisks (instead of an HTML `<em>` tag), you can backslashes -before the asterisks, like this: - - \*literal asterisks\* - -Markdown provides backslash escapes for the following characters: - - \ backslash - ` backtick - * asterisk - _ underscore - {} curly braces - [] square brackets - () parentheses - # hash mark - + plus sign - - minus sign (hyphen) - . dot - ! exclamation mark - |