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I'm using markdown to edit this question right now. In some wikis I used wiki markup. Are they the same thing? Are they related? Please explain. If I want to implement one or the other in a web project (like stackoverflow) what do I need to use?

Steve M
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Ron Harlev
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6 Answers6

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Busti
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ryw
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    I found the Markdown project comment to be useful: _Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers._ In a wider sense, any text-to-HTML conversion tool could be considered supporting "markdown". – PeterX Sep 20 '17 at 03:42
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    Brevity's the soul of wit, but this answer could offer a little more, e.g. around the 'flavors' of markdown, which I guess is how most of us come to have heard of it (e.g. stack overflow, github etc). Kudos also for the wiki link. I just sad-smiled to learn that Aaron Swartz was one of its creators. – stevec Apr 08 '20 at 08:58
163

Mark-up is a term from print editing - the editor would go through the text and add annotations (i.e. this in italic, that in bold) for the printers to use when producing the final version. This was called marking up the text.

A computer mark-up language is just a standardised short-hand for these sorts of annotations.

HTML is basically the web's standard mark-up language, but it's rather verbose.

A list in HTML:

<ul>
    <li>Item one</li>
    <li>Item two</li>
</ul>

Markdown is a specific markup language, having its own simple syntax.

A list in Markdown:

* Item one
* Item two

Both of these will work in your stackoverflow posts.

Markdown can't do everything HTML can, but both are mark-up languages.

Keith
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    > Markdown is a specific markup language ... naming your markup languages like this is why this question is so prevalent – Fueled By Coffee Mar 07 '18 at 19:59
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    I think this note `Mark-up is a term from print editing - the editor would go through the text and add annotations (i.e. this in italic, that in bold) for the printers to use when producing the final version` is really key point in understanding what mark-up is, to then better understand the difference between itself and the markdown library – Mikayil Abdullayev Dec 13 '18 at 02:09
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Markdown is a play on words because it is markup. "Markdown" is a proper noun.

Markup is just a way of providing functionality above plain text. For example: formatting, links, images, etc.

Ryan Fox
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9

Markup is a general term for content formatting - such as HTML - but markdown is a library that generates HTML markup. Take a look at Markdown.

Ross
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7

Markdown and the markup used in Mediawiki (the wiki software that powers Wikipedia) is not the same.

They're related in the sense that both are less verbose ways of entering html (with some added features), but I doubt that they are related to each other in any other sense.

If you want to implement Markdown on your site just Google Markdown + your favourite platform/language and you'll likely to find a library that does it for you.

If you want to implement Mediawiki's markup you probably need to look round for better ones (like Markdown).

Oddmund
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Markdown and markup are not the same, but they are related: Markdown is a particular kind of markup. Specifically, it is a lightweight markup designed to map to HMTL (another way to write HTML, in other words).

Use in a web project

To use markdown on a web project, you need to convert the Markdown to HTML, and for that you need a library. Markdown could be extended to produce other effects than generating HTML.

Although the concept is simple, the implementation may be complex, depending on your requirements. E.g. you may want a way to watch for MD file changes and render files in response. Or in the simplest case, you might choose to write in markdown, manually run a markdown processor, and FTP the file to your web server.

For example:

  • MDX renders .mdx files as components, which can include other components (e.g. React or Vue), which in turn render HTML.
  • Python Markdown takes .md files as input and outputs them as .html or .xhtml

Interpretation of the name

Markdown is a play on words, the joke being that "markdown" means to reduce the price; Markdown is "cheaper" (in file size) than HTML. It makes for a nicer writing experience for the same reason as it's a "cheaper" file format: there are fewer characters to process.

evan g
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