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Markdown

Text-to-HTML conversion tool/syntax for web writers, by John Gruber
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What is Markdown?

Markdown is two things: (1) a plain text formatting syntax; and (2) a software tool, written in Perl, that converts the plain text formatting to HTML.
Markdown is a tool in the Languages category of a tech stack.

Who uses Markdown?

Companies
1747 companies reportedly use Markdown in their tech stacks, including reddit, StackShare, and GitHub.

Developers
18785 developers on StackShare have stated that they use Markdown.

Markdown Integrations

Hugo, Docusaurus, vscode.dev, Obsidian, and Astro are some of the popular tools that integrate with Markdown. Here's a list of all 83 tools that integrate with Markdown.
Pros of Markdown
345
Easy formatting
246
Widely adopted
194
Intuitive
132
Github integration
41
Great for note taking
2
Defacto GitHub lingo
Decisions about Markdown

Here are some stack decisions, common use cases and reviews by companies and developers who chose Markdown in their tech stack.

Needs advice
on
GatsbyGatsbyHexoHexo
and
WordPressWordPress

I have been building a website with Gatsby (for a small group of volunteers). I track it in GitHub and push it to Amazon S3.

I am satisfied with it as a single user; however, I would like to get non-technical teammates to be able to post Markdown blog posts. I tried to teach them to add mdx files, git push, gastby build, and publish with gatsby-plugin-s3, but I am getting a fair amount of resistance :).

So I wonder if there are tools, preferably using Node.js, that allow multi-user blog authors a la wordpress, i.e. with an interface for non technical bloggers, but producing static/pre-rendered web pages.

(PS: I am considering having a node/express.js server where they could upload their mdx file and the server would re-build push and publish for them, without having them install anything, but I'd like to know if something already exists before jumping into this endeavor)

See more
Needs advice
on
ConfluenceConfluence
and
GitHub PagesGitHub Pages

Confluence is pretty limited in terms of creating rich content, so I'm thinking about having the team put some effort into switching over to a Markdown-based system like GitHub Pages. Do you know of any pros and cons of GitHub pages for internal content of an organization vs Confluence?

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Nikolaj Ivancic
Needs advice
on
Next.jsNext.js
and
Nuxt.jsNuxt.js

I want to build a documentation tool - functionally equivalent to MkDocs. The initial choice ought to be VuePress - but I know of at least one respectable developer who started with VuePress and switched to Nuxt.js. A rich set of "themes" is a plus and all documents ought to be in Markdown.

Any opinions?

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Rick Maltese
founder at Webcompose.ca · | 6 upvotes · 72.1K views
Needs advice
on
MarkdownMarkdown
and
PHPPHP

I am a newbie to StackShare and the GitHub community. I want to understand how to use an include statement to get a collection of Markdown files to create a book. I have been told that there are a number of useful tools. My problem is that npm and Node.js are also very new to me. Any suggestions on how to get my md chapters into a printable document would be helpful.

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Simon Reymann
Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH · | 30 upvotes · 8.9M views

Our whole DevOps stack consists of the following tools:

  • GitHub (incl. GitHub Pages/Markdown for Documentation, GettingStarted and HowTo's) for collaborative review and code management tool
  • Respectively Git as revision control system
  • SourceTree as Git GUI
  • Visual Studio Code as IDE
  • CircleCI for continuous integration (automatize development process)
  • Prettier / TSLint / ESLint as code linter
  • SonarQube as quality gate
  • Docker as container management (incl. Docker Compose for multi-container application management)
  • VirtualBox for operating system simulation tests
  • Kubernetes as cluster management for docker containers
  • Heroku for deploying in test environments
  • nginx as web server (preferably used as facade server in production environment)
  • SSLMate (using OpenSSL) for certificate management
  • Amazon EC2 (incl. Amazon S3) for deploying in stage (production-like) and production environments
  • PostgreSQL as preferred database system
  • Redis as preferred in-memory database/store (great for caching)

The main reason we have chosen Kubernetes over Docker Swarm is related to the following artifacts:

  • Key features: Easy and flexible installation, Clear dashboard, Great scaling operations, Monitoring is an integral part, Great load balancing concepts, Monitors the condition and ensures compensation in the event of failure.
  • Applications: An application can be deployed using a combination of pods, deployments, and services (or micro-services).
  • Functionality: Kubernetes as a complex installation and setup process, but it not as limited as Docker Swarm.
  • Monitoring: It supports multiple versions of logging and monitoring when the services are deployed within the cluster (Elasticsearch/Kibana (ELK), Heapster/Grafana, Sysdig cloud integration).
  • Scalability: All-in-one framework for distributed systems.
  • Other Benefits: Kubernetes is backed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), huge community among container orchestration tools, it is an open source and modular tool that works with any OS.
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Markdown Alternatives & Comparisons

What are some alternatives to Markdown?
MarkUp
It allows you to turn your website into a dynamic canvas ready for feedback and collaboration. Streamline your feedback with a quicker, easier, and clearer process.
JavaScript
JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.
Python
Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.
HTML5
HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.
PHP
Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.
See all alternatives

Markdown's Followers
15755 developers follow Markdown to keep up with related blogs and decisions.