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reStructuredText VS GitHub Flavored Markdown

Compare reStructuredText VS GitHub Flavored Markdown and see what are their differences

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reStructuredText logo reStructuredText

Invented for Python documentation.

GitHub Flavored Markdown logo GitHub Flavored Markdown

GitHub uses "GitHub Flavored Markdown," or GFM, across the site--in issues, comments, and...
  • reStructuredText Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-12-26
  • GitHub Flavored Markdown Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-27

reStructuredText features and specs

  • Readability
    reStructuredText offers a clean, readable syntax that resembles plain text, making it easy for humans to read and write without requiring special software.
  • Extensibility
    It permits extensions and custom directives, allowing users to create new functionalities and adaptations specific to their needs.
  • Integration
    It is the default markup language for Python documentation and is naturally supported by Sphinx, which makes it suitable for generating detailed and attractive documentation.
  • Semantic Richness
    reStructuredText supports comprehensive semantic markup structures, enabling detailed annotations and proper structuring of documents.

Possible disadvantages of reStructuredText

  • Complexity
    Learning all of the features of reStructuredText can be complex for beginners due to its wide range of functionalities and strict syntax rules.
  • Limited Adoption
    Compared to Markdown, reStructuredText has a smaller user base and community support, which can limit resources and examples available for new users.
  • Tool Support
    While it is well-supported in Python environments, outside this ecosystem, there are fewer tools and editors that provide full support and previews for reStructuredText.
  • Less Forgiving
    The syntax is more rigid and less forgiving of errors compared to some alternatives like Markdown, which means small mistakes can lead to rendering issues.

GitHub Flavored Markdown features and specs

  • Widespread Usage
    GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) is widely used in the GitHub community, making it a popular choice for collaborating on open-source projects and documenting code repositories.
  • Enhanced Features
    GFM extends the standard Markdown with additional features like tables, strikethrough, and syntax highlighting, allowing for more expressive and informative content.
  • Version Control Integration
    GFM is seamlessly integrated with GitHub’s version control system, making it easy to track changes, collaborate on documentation, and propose updates through pull requests.
  • Live Preview
    GitHub provides a live preview of Markdown files, which helps users see how their Markdown will render, ensuring the final document looks as expected.
  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    Since GFM is based on Markdown, documents can be easily shared and rendered across different platforms and services, retaining consistent formatting.

Possible disadvantages of GitHub Flavored Markdown

  • Limited Advanced Formatting
    While GFM offers several enhancements over standard Markdown, it still lacks support for some advanced formatting options found in richer text editors or other markup languages.
  • GitHub Dependency
    GFM is primarily designed to work within the GitHub ecosystem, which can limit usefulness outside of GitHub, especially if using features specific to GFM.
  • Learning Curve
    Users familiar with standard Markdown might need to learn the additional syntax and features of GFM, which can be an initial barrier for some.
  • Consistency Issues
    Rendering consistency might vary when GFM documents are viewed outside of GitHub, as some features might not be supported in other Markdown processors.

reStructuredText videos

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GitHub Flavored Markdown videos

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Demystifying Markdown – Learn GitHub flavored Markdown (GFM) on Skillshare | Clyde D'Souza

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to reStructuredText and GitHub Flavored Markdown)

reStructuredText

GitHub Flavored Markdown

Documentation
65 65%
Documentation
35% 35
Documentation As A Service & Tools
55 55%
Documentation As A Service & Tools
45% 45
Knowledge Base
100 100%
Knowledge Base
0% 0
Text Editors
0 0%
Text Editors
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, reStructuredText seems to be a lot more popular than GitHub Flavored Markdown. While we know about 11 links to reStructuredText, we've tracked only 1 mention of GitHub Flavored Markdown. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

reStructuredText mentions (11)

  • Show HN: Tritium – The Legal IDE in Rust
    Much (but not all) of what you are looking for exists in the reStructuredText [1] space. Sphinx [2] is an SSG focused on technical writing about software that you may find worth exploring. Also, the scientific text community has been pushing MyST [3] which is an attempt to take some of the best ideas of reStructuredText and reapply them to Markdown-style syntax as a baseline. The MyST tools are a lot more recent... - Source: Hacker News / 5 days ago
  • Writing a book in the age of open source
    I can sympathize with the OP authors' frustration with Markdown and resulting preference for ASCIIDoc (try to format a poem, or a play script, in Markdown). Lots of people have addressed this, and NIH rules supreme -- see reStructured Text[2]. However several comments here mention the convenience of a workflow based on Markdown + GIT. Exactly that workflow is the heart of Leanpub[0]. That site facilitates writing... - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
  • How To Choose the Best Static Site Generator and Deploy it to Kinsta for Free
    Markup language: Markup language is used to write documents in a way that distinguishes them from plain text. Most SSGs utilize lightweight markup languages, such as Markdown. However, alternatives like AsciiDoc, Textile, and ReStructuredText are also used. These lightweight languages simplify content creation and are converted into HTML during the site generation process. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Packaging Python projects in 2023 from scratch
    Uses Sphinx, reStructuredText And the sphinx-rtd-theme for writing, building And rendering the documentation. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • What's the #1 feature that is needed in Obsidian, if one feature is all you get
    If we're dreaming, ReStructed Text support. Source: about 2 years ago
View more

GitHub Flavored Markdown mentions (1)

  • Resources for proper putting of code on to GitHub ?
    Not sure quite what you mean. Are you asking "what should I put on GitHub" or "how to make it look pretty?" For the latter, check out https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/writing-on-github. Source: about 2 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing reStructuredText and GitHub Flavored Markdown, you can also consider the following products

Asciidoctor - In the spirit of free software, everyone is encouraged to help improve this project.

Text::Amuse - Markup language for AMuseWiki.

Markdown by DaringFireball - Text-to-HTML conversion tool/syntax for web writers, by John Gruber

Caoutchouc - Typesetting language using Markdown and AsciiMath to format documents

mdbook - Gitbook alternative in Rust

Groff - The groff (GNU troff) software is a typesetting package which reads plain text mixed with...

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