Markdown can be for everyone

What is Markdown and and why am I hearing about it all the time

Markdown is a simple and easy to write in plain text markup that easily converts to HTML. It is excellent for note taking or writing content that will later be converted to HTML. It has been made popular by GitHub and other programming tools for documentation because it’s simple and quick to write.

Why would I want to use Markdown?

Markdown isn’t just for programmers though, anyone that wants to write articles or documentation will find it useful. Many static site generators, blogs etc use this format as well. Learning to write markdown is quick and simple. It is easy to write without giving much thought to the format while using Markdown. While any simple text editor can read and write markdown there are also many more advanced markdown editors too. The open ability of reading the files (typicaly denoted with an md extention ie. filename.md) makes sure you never lose the ability to read and use files just because you no longer have a specialzed program.

Many markdown editors also have built-in support for plugins that have become common extensions to the base markdown language. Math display, LaTex output, and UMD diagrams are among some of the most common and powerful extensions I have seen.

How do I get started with Markdown

Markdown editors

Markdown is very commonly used in the programming world so most IDEs and code editors support markdown, to some extent at least. VScode editor has a very common plugin called “Markdown All in One” that I recommend if you are using vscode. A wonderful application that works on Linux, Windows, and Mac is Typora I often recommend this for non-programmers that just want to view, edit, create markdown without thinking about it much. It also has built-in support for UMD, LaTex, and math. A newer to editor that I am increasingly impressed by is Mark Text it appears to be very close to Typora in both looks and functionality but is completely opensource (and free)I would give it first choice if looking for a free good option. GhostWriter is another popular markdown editor that is not only free but also open sourced. It is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac (unofficially). Remarkable is a very capable markdown editor for Linux that is free. If you are looking for better language support you might look at Haroopad which seems to be developed by a Japanese team. It supports Linux, Windows and Mac. If you are looking for a great looking MacOS or iOS application its hard to go wrong with Ulyssess. It comes with its own cloud storage to sync between devices but does cost $5.99/month.

If you are looking to just try out markdown quick or looking for a solution that doesn’t require any install what-so-ever there are also online editors available. stackeditor is a powerful markdown editor that displays the source code side-by-side with the output live as you type. Another popular online choice is Draft which is free also but does require an account.

Markdown basics

Markdown is very quick to learn and to write in. It allows concentration on the content and less on the formating. The basics of Markdown are as follows to get your feet wet:

- text written on a line without anything special is considered a paragraph

# - Header level 1 (h1) this is normally reserved for the top of a document

ie.
```
# This is a Title
```
## - Header level 2
### - Header level 3 (this continues to 6 levels)
- - a bulleted list
```
- unordered item 
- unordered item 
```
1. - or any line starting with a number followed by a dot is an ordered list
```
1. item 1
2. item 2
```
[linkName](linkAddress) - a link
` - backquotes character is used to denote an inline code block
``` - a blank line starting with 3 backquotes and 3 backquotes denoting the end of the block
```
``` javascript
console.log("some js code");
```

Full documentation on standard Markdown is here https://www.markdownguide.org/basic-syntax/

Taking Markdown even further

LaTeX / Math

I think this has become standard now and just about every markdown editor supports LaTex now.

$$ \mathbf{V}_1 \times \mathbf{V}_2 = \begin{vmatrix} \mathbf{i} & \mathbf{j} & \mathbf{k} \ \frac{\partial X}{\partial u} & \frac{\partial Y}{\partial u} & 0 \ \frac{\partial X}{\partial v} & \frac{\partial Y}{\partial v} & 0 \ \end{vmatrix} $$

LaTex can be entered by start and end blocks of $$

Inline math

$\lim_{x \to \infty} \exp(-x) = 0$

mermaid - diagrams

https://mermaid-js.GitHub.io/mermaid/#/examples?id=basic-flowchart

Sequence diagram

Alice->Bob: Hello Bob, How are you?
Note right of Bob: Bob thinks
Bob-->Alice: I am good thanks!

Flow Charts

st=>start: Start
op=>operation: Your Operation
cond=>condition: Yes or No?
e=>end

st->op->cond
cond(yes)->e
cond(no)->op