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These lifehacks will change the way you write Markdown!

Yechiel Kalmenson on August 16, 2019

If you're a developer, chances are you've come across markdown editors before (whether you know it or not). Markdown is supported by GitHub, DEV, ...
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Antonin J. (they/them)

I had no idea about the diff highlight! Can you combine it with a JS syntax highlight?

Im definitely using this in my next tutorials btw. Thanks a bunch for the article!

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Yechiel Kalmenson

As far as I know you can't have two languages selected so if you have diff there's no way to add another language.

That's why I only use diff when it's a change of a few characters, if the change is more than a line I'll use they language for the syntax highlighting.

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Jean-Michel πŸ•΅πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ Fayard

My best markdown lifehack is to ditch it in favor of asciidoc as soon as you are doing something non trivial.

Simple things should be easy, complex things should be possible said a wise man. Markdown got only the first part right. Asciidoc is as easy as markdown for the simple things but won't let you down if you do something more complex

asciidoctor.org/docs/user-manual/#...

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ppetermann

If I really need more complex I might just use good ol' latex

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jmfayard profile image
Jean-Michel πŸ•΅πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ Fayard

Latex is oriented towards Print though, that's a different use case

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ppetermann

Which really is the only time where I need something more complex than markdown.

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jmfayard profile image
Jean-Michel πŸ•΅πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ Fayard

That's what I thought also, but in fact markdown is never enough if you look at it closely :

  • on GitHub I'm using "markdown plus" some GitHub extensions
  • on dev.to, I'm using "markdown plus" some handy native liquid tags
  • with a static site generator, I'm using "markdown plus" a static front matter thingy

The question then is whether to use multiple incompatible "markdown plus extension" or a standardized better format like asciidoc.

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Peter Mortensen • Edited

Is AsciiDoc used by any web site, web application, or CMS (not a rhetorical question)?

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Jean-Michel πŸ•΅πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ Fayard

It works on GitHub

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Dalton Lima

Love Markdown and this article.
Nice job!

There is a small error, in the Javascript and Diff examples, they are mixed.

To beginners I'll suggest to install a preview extension into VSCode and maybe another extension to handle Markdown shortcuts.

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yechielk profile image
Yechiel Kalmenson

Thank you!

What do you mean that they are mixed? It seems right to me... πŸ€”

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Dalton Lima

Nevermind, it must be something regarding the renderer on the DEV Android app, or it was me that was just tired after a long week! πŸ˜…

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Andrew Atkinson

Nice list! I also like to use angle brackets <> around links with no text, quotations with >, and footnotes via the Extended Syntax (supported by GitHub Pages for example). markdownguide.org/extended-syntax/

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Ceora Ford

Everyone who is new to publishing on here should read this.

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Yechiel Kalmenson

Thank you! ❀️

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Burdette Lamar

Javascript and diff, of course. But many, many more. Check out the complete list on Github.

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Yechiel Kalmenson

Yes! I didn't mean to imply JavaScript was the only one, I brought it as an example. Most people I've spoken to didn't know about diff though, so that was the main one I wanted to point out.

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Sylvie Fiquet

I didn't know about diff as a language, thanks!

Btw you might want to change the first gist link, it shows the same file as the second gist, with the javascript keyword.

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petermortensen profile image
Peter Mortensen • Edited

Was the mentioned issue fixed with #4438? It is not entirely clear. Perhaps update this post if it was?

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Yechiel Kalmenson

Ah, looks like it was, thanks!

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Esperanza Cutillas Rastoll

This article is great! I didn't know some of those things!

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Yechiel Kalmenson

Glad you found it helpful!

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ppetermann

Didn't know about diff.
Will deffo use diff

Thank you!

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m-p-3

Just tried it in Joplin (OneNote-like app using Markdown syntax) and it works wonderfully, thanks for the tip!

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Yechiel Kalmenson

Glad you found it helpful!

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vicky209

Wonderful article! I'm using a project management software and they allow us to write Markdown as well. I will definitely use your advice!

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Yechiel Kalmenson

Glad you found it helpful! πŸ€—

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Bert Heyman

Really useful tips!

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Yechiel Kalmenson

Glad you found it helpful! πŸ€—

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Chris Achard

diff looks awesome! I never knew that would work like it does :) nice - thanks!

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Alex Patterson

This is awesome I πŸ’― of the time use 1. Only for allmy lists.

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Yechiel Kalmenson

Same! πŸ™‚

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Ridhik Govind

Wow ! Gonna implement the 'diff' in my next article ! Thankss ! :)