Formatting Concepts in Markdown

Unfortunately, Markdown is not very good at handling code-like text, because it does not support indentation well. There are various options:

  • Non-breaking spaces. Perhaps the best solution is simply to use non-breaking spaces for indentation. These can be written as HTML characters (\ ), or by typing option-space (Mac) or control-shift-space (Windows). You will need to end each line with a backslash (\) or two spaces to ensure a linebreak:

  concept PasswordAuth
  purpose authenticate users
  principle a user registers…
  state
    a set of Users with
      a username String
      a password String

  • Code blocks. A code block can be specified by placing three backticks (''') on a line above and a line below. This is like verbatim mode in LaTeX; it will preserve the layout, but you can’t use any other formatting features (such as bold and italics).
  concept PasswordAuth
  purpose authenticate users
  principle a user registers...
  state
    a set of Users with
      a username String
      a password String
  • Quotes. You can use nested quotation, prefixing each line with one or more greater-than (>) symbols, and ending each line with a backslash (\) or two spaces to ensure a linebreak:

concept PasswordAuth
purpose authenticate users
principle a user registers…
state

a set of Users with

a username String
a password String

  • Bullets. You can use bullets for indentation (one of -, *, +), placing a tab before the bullet symbol for each extra level of indentation:

    • concept PasswordAuth
    • purpose authenticate users
    • principle a user registers…
    • state
      • a set of Users with
        • a username String
        • a password String