Markdown was created in 2004 by John Gruber, with significant contributions from Aaron Swartz, as a solution to a simple problem: writing for the web was cumbersome. The goal was to create a lightweight markup language that allowed people to “write using an easy-to-read and easy-to-write plain text format” that could be intelligently converted into structurally valid HTML. Its syntax was heavily inspired by the existing formatting conventions used in plain text emails and Usenet posts, such as using asterisks for emphasis. Because the original specification was somewhat ambiguous, different versions, or “flavors,” emerged as platforms like GitHub adopted it. This led to the creation of standardized specifications like CommonMark to ensure consistency across different applications.
Syntax of the Markdown
Markdown is a lightweight markup language that uses simple, plain-text syntax to add formatting to text. Created by John Gruber in 2004, it's designed to be easy to read and write in its raw form and converts directly to HTML. It is widely used for creating README files, writing documentation, and formatting online content.