Software

Markup Languages

Markdown

markdownguide.org

Markdown is a lightweight markup language for formatting plain text, created by John Gruber in 2004. The goal of Markdown is to format text in a way that remains readable as raw text while also being convertible to HTML or other formats.

Markdown is used extensively in our courses – in R Markdown, Quarto documents, Jupyter Notebooks, and GitHub READMEs. It is not software that needs to be installed but rather a syntax supported by many different tools.

Basic Syntax

Headings

# Heading 1
## Heading 2
### Heading 3
#### Heading 4

Text Formatting

Markdown	Result
**bold text**	bold text
*italic text*	italic text
***bold and italic***	bold and italic
`code`	code
~~strikethrough~~	strikethrough

Links and Images

[Link text](https://www.example.com)
![Alt text](image.png)

Lists

- Item 1
- Item 2
  - Sub-item

1. First item
2. Second item
3. Third item

Code Blocks

```r
x <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
mean(x)
```

Tables

| Column A | Column B |
|----------|----------|
| Value 1  | Value 2  |
| Value 3  | Value 4  |

Blockquotes

> This is a quote.
> It can span multiple lines.

Installation

Markdown is a syntax, not standalone software – therefore it does not need to be installed. Markdown is natively supported by numerous applications, including:

• Quarto and R Markdown – for scientific documents
• Jupyter Notebooks – for interactive data analysis
• GitHub – for READMEs and documentation
• VS Code, RStudio, Positron – with built-in preview
• Online editors such as Dillinger or StackEdit

Further Resources

• Markdown Guide – Comprehensive reference and tutorials
• CommonMark – Standardized Markdown specification
• GitHub Flavored Markdown – GitHub’s extended Markdown variant
• Quarto – Markdown Basics – Markdown in Quarto
• R Markdown Cheatsheet – Quick reference