Markdown is a simple markup language for writing documents and the original & official specification was made by John Gruber with help from Aaron Swartz, but the specification is a bit ambiguous with some aspects of the syntax. Other stricter variations such as GitHub Flavored Markdown spec and CommonMark have come along to improve the original specification. Markdown cheatsheet and GitHub Guides: Mastering Markdown are good starting points for learning the syntax.
Example of Markdown syntax:
# H1 Heading
## H2 Heading
### H3 Heading
**Bold**
*Italic*
~~strikethrough~~
[link](http://google.com)
`inline code`
Benefits of using a plain text format for writing
- Every device can open & read it
- Markdown is possible to read as is without a preview
- Version control & file management is easy
- Format is not locked down to a specific editor
- Efficient usage of storage space
Editing Markdown files
Markdown files can be edited with any text editor and most modern code text editors support the format with additional features such as live output previewing. Markdown specific editors are usually made for longform writing and offer typewriter-like modes, syntax highlighting for text and file management tools. Markdown Preprocessor can be used to merge files in a larger project.
- Editors with Markdown support:
- Visual Studio Code (install Markdown PDF and Markdown shortcuts -extensions)
- Atom
- Sublime Text
- Markdown specific text editors::