What is?

It is a very simple markup language, which was created by John Gruber and Aaron Swartz has in its formatting codes converted to XHTML.

In Github you can adorn the README of your project by creating a README.markdown with the markings and automatically it will be interpreted and generated a valid XHTML and beautiful.

How to Use – Codes for Format

Turn any literal code, use ‘\’ (backslash) before: \ # or or \ *

H1
# My Title
Result:
<h1>My Title</h1>

H2
## My Subtitle
Result:
<h2>My Subtitle</h2>

…

H6
###### My tiny title
Result:
<h6>My tiny title</h6>

Italic

*text*
_text_
Result: <em>text</em>

Bold

</pre>
**text**
 __text__
 Result: <strong>text</strong>

Code

print_r (array ()); '
Result: <code> print_r (array ()); </ code>

Quote

> text
Result:
<blockquote> text </ blockquote>

Link

[Click here to download the PDF] (http://www.uia.com/demo.pdf "Click and Download the PDF")
Result: <a href="http://www.uia.com/demo.pdf" title="Clique and Download PDF"> Click here to download the PDF </a>

Image

! [Here should appear a person icon] (http://www.uia.com/pessoa_icon.png "Person")
Result: <img src = "http://www.uia.com/pessoa_icon.png" alt = "here should you see a person icon" title = "Person" />

Unordered lists

* 1 item
* 2 item
Or
+ 1 item
+ Item 2
Or
- Item 1
- Item 2

Result:

<ul>

<li> Item 1 </ li>

<li> item 2 </ li>
</ul>

Ordered lists

1. Item 1
2. item 2

Result:

<ol>

<li> Item 1 </ li>

<li> item 2 </ li>
</ol>

More information and formatting read the documentation http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax

PHP library to make parsing files with Markdown formatting: http://michelf.com/projects/php-markdown/

There are libraries for other languages: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown