Making Markdown Your Second Language

A College Student’s Guide to Mastering Markdown

In the midst of navigating my professional journey, I’ve come across many tools and languages that have contributed to my growth as a coding enthusiast. That’s what led me to this writing adventure indeed! I want to give you a peek into my coder’s toolbox, and today we are exploring Markdown.

Markdown, simply put, is a lightweight markup language that allows you to format text. Why should you care? Well, given it’s “second-nature” feel and simplicity, Markdown is massively used in readme files, online discussion forums, and blogs (like this one!). Now let’s dive into the main offerings: code blocks, quotes, lists, and tables.

1. Code Blocks

A Markdown code block allows you to share code in a more readable format. As a React enthusiast intern, I consistently use code blocks to share my code effectively. Here’s an example:

const name: string = 'Thomas';
console.log(`Hello, my name is ${name}`);

Writing this block in markdown is pretty simple, you just use three backticks ”```” and optionally specify the code language right after the opening backticks.

2. Quotes

When you want to quote someone or highlight some part of your content, you use quotes. Let’s have a favorite quote of mine in here:

“First, solve the problem. Then, write the code.” - John Johnson

Starting the line with a ’>’ sign does the trick!

3. Lists

Lists are essential in our everyday writing. Whether it’s for noting down your grocery list or coding technologies you’ve used in your project, lists are there for you. Markdown provides support for both unordered and ordered lists. Here’s how:

- Unordered item 
- Another unordered item

1. Ordered item
2. Another ordered item

Output:

• Unordered item
• Another unordered item

1. Ordered item
2. Another ordered item

4. Tables

It doesn’t stop there! You can also create tables in markdown. Let’s say I need to outline the key technologies I’ve used in my internship:

Technology	Purpose
Spring, Java	Backend development
TypeScript, React	Frontend development
HTML/CSS	UI design

Creating tables involves using ’|’ to separate each cell and ’---’ for creating the header.

Alright, folks! Markdown is an ocean and I’ve just touched the surface here. Dive in and you may find it to be your second language too, just like it’s mine! Simplifying and streamlining our coding language not only helps others understand our code but also refines our understanding and thinking process. Until next time, happy coding!