Markdown Syntax: Basics

Core of what MD4C can undertand is defined by CommonMark specification. Therefore the below is just a condensed summary.

• Plain text (two paragraphs):

  This is first paragraph.
  
  And this is second paragraph.
  

• Italic:

  Text enclosed in *single asterisks* or _single underscores_ is recognized
  as an emphasis, and it usually gets rendered as an italic text.
  

• Bold:

  Similarly, text enclosed in **double asterisks** or __double underscores__
  is recognized as a strong emphasis, and it usually gets rendered as a bold
  text.
  

• Bold italic:

  *Italic* and **bold text** can be combined into ***bold italic***, even 
  __in quite a _complicated_ ways__.
  

• Headings:

  # Header level 1
  ## Header level 2
  ### Header level 3
  #### Header level 4
  ##### Header level 5
  ###### Header level 6
  
  First two header level may alternatively be written using an underline:
  
  Header level 1
  ==============
  
  Header level 2
  --------------
  

• Link:

  Inline link: [link text](http://www.example.com)
  
  Or link using a reference definition:
  
  [Reference link][1]
  
  [1]: http://www.example.com
  

• Image:

  Inline image: ![image alt text](http://www.example.com/image.png)
  
  Or image using a reference definition:
  
  ![image alt text][2]
  
  [2]: http://www.example.com/image.png
  

• Unordered lists:

  * List item 1
  * List item 2
  * List item 3
  
  or
  
  - List item 1
  - List item 2
  - List item 3
  

• Ordered lists:

  1. List item 1
  2. List item 2
  3. List item 3
  
  or
  
  1) List item 1
  2) List item 2
  3) List item 3
  

• Nested lists:

  * Foo
    * Foo's subitem
  * Bar
    * Bar's subitem 1
    * Bar's subitem 2
    * Bar's subitem 3
  * Baz
    * Baz's subitem 1
    * Baz's subitem 2
  

• Blockquote:

  > Part of documements with lines prepended with `>` is treated as a
  > blockquote.
  >
  > > It may contain even nested block quote or lists:
  > 
  > * List item 1
  > * List item 2
  

• Inline code (a.k.a code span):

  Run shell command `ls` to get contents of the current directory.
  

• Code block:

  Set of lines enclosed within a lines formed by three (or more) consecutive
  backticks (```) or tildes (~~~) is recognized as a code block.
  
  Alternatively, the code may just be indented by four or more spaces:
  
      $ ./configure
      $ make
      $ make install
  
  An [info string] can be provided after the opening code fence.
  Although this spec doesn't mandate any particular treatment of
  the info string, the first word is typically used to specify
  the language of the code block. In HTML output, the language is
  normally indicated by adding a class to the `code` element consisting
  of `language-` followed by the language name.
  
  example:
  
  ~~~ruby
  def foo(x)
    return 3
  end
  ~~~
  
  will turn into:
  
  <pre><code class="language-ruby">def foo(x)
    return 3
  end
  </code></pre>