[Tip] Markdown vs Multimarkdown vs Github Markdown etc

Tips & Tricks
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Please excuse me if this has already been asked.

I was wondering if there is anywhere that has a side by side comparison of supported features for each of the syntax highlightings in Drafts. Particularly Markdown, Multimarkdown, and Github Markdown.

I’m trying to figure out which I will use for day to day use, but it seems like throughout any app there is inconsistent implementation of features. (Understandable since it’s an open-source standard.)

For example, today I wanted to type strike-through. I had heard that MultiMarkdown has more features than plain Markdown, but in Drafts it didn’t notice strike-through. Then I googled and found that the official Markdown site says it supports strike-through. Tried it in Drafts and it doesn’t. Finally tried Github Markdown in Drafts and it did support strike-through.

Long story short, I’d like your advice on picking which one to use for day to day use. (My needs aren’t super specialized. Just writing notes for myself.) And if you guys know anywhere I could look at the supported feature set of each, then that would be awesome.

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MultiMarkdown gets my vote, mostly due to strong table support, footnotes, and simple transclusion, all of which I use frequently. While it is not part of the official syntax, most MultiMarkdown editors also support CriticMarkup, which has things like strike through. Drafts has an option to enable CriticMarkup in the MultiMarkdown options. (MultiMarkdown Composer and Marked 2 both handle CriticMarkup and render it correctly - these are both key tools in my tool chain and work very well with Drafts.)

There’s a good comparison chart here, though it does not clearly distinguish between the basic syntax and extension.

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Thank you so much. Just activated CriticMarkup on mine. (Strange this version of strike-through turns my text red on Drafts.)

That comparison chart is so helpful. Thank you.

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@technodad Thanks for the link and comparison. And for CriticMarkup.

@DandyLyons
Think of it like the markdown as a key feature set.
It is in all the other Markdown Flavors.

Github created extensions and the Multimarkdown was developed in parallel.

CriticMarkup is as far as I know a completely different extension.

Editors like Marked or Typora try to incorporate as many features as possible.

This makes the story even mor complex.

CommonMark tried or still tries to rectify that.

But they are still far from their goal.

(The reason why I switched to Asciidoctor and even thought me some ruby for it…)

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As CriticMarkup was mentioned, md2pptx my Markdown to PowerPoint converter supports it. Even though it’s not pure Markdown.

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One thing to worry about with these flavours of Markdown is whether heading href’s are generated the same way. Has caught me out before - and no doubt will again. :frowning:

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There are a few places, this is similar to the site I found today:

Hope it helps.
Paul

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… oh yes - so true.

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While us Markdown fans love to bemoan the diversity of flavors, IMO it’s not that big of a deal day-to-day, unless you’re doing something really complex. I bounce between MultiMarkdown for standalone documents and GitLab-flavor Markdown daily, and I don’t have to stop and think about flavors.

The only time I have some issues is if I’m doing a multipart document; in this case, I have to pick and stick with a transclude syntax. (Multimarkdown in my case.)

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Me too. And in fact md2pptx does that - plus roping in “cousins”: CriticMarkup and Taskpaper.

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