Title: JP Markdown and Code Blocks
Last modified: January 31, 2017

---

# JP Markdown and Code Blocks

 *  [johnlaudun](https://wordpress.org/support/users/johnlaudun/)
 * (@johnlaudun)
 * [9 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/jp-markdown-and-code-blocks/)
 * Okay, I finally decided to let go my beloved, yet ancient, copy of Markdown Extra
   and let Jetpack do all the lifting. I’m suffering what seem to be the usual transition
   issues — some posts are appearing in their markdown jammos — but I can live with
   it because I don’t mind refreshing the fairly limited number of older posts that
   still get significant traffic.
 * One issue I can’t figure out is what’s happening when I drop in a code block (
   in my case it’s Python). My habit is to do it with fences like this:
 * \`python
    Some code here `
 * When I do that, however, I get a lot of this: `colnames = ['author',`.
 * I’m using Syntax Highlighter Evolved, and when I deactivate it, all I get is 
   a short code, `[code lang=python]` and then no actual formatting for the code
   block.
 * Despite running WP for a decade, I'm still terrible at troubleshooting plug-ins--
   I guess that's why I held onto PHP Markdown Extra for so long. It was just so
   reliable.
 * EDIT: I forgot to add a link to the relevant post:
 * [http://johnlaudun.org/20170129-getting-word-frequencies-for-2000-texts/](http://johnlaudun.org/20170129-getting-word-frequencies-for-2000-texts/)
    -  This topic was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by [johnlaudun](https://wordpress.org/support/users/johnlaudun/).

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

 *  Plugin Author [Jeremy Herve](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jeherve/)
 * (@jeherve)
 * Jetpack Mechanic 🚀
 * [9 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/jp-markdown-and-code-blocks/#post-8721573)
 * Thanks for the report.
 * Jetpack happens to use the Markdown Extra library as well, so the switch should
   be smooth. Let’s see if we can fix what’s happening on your site.
 * > One issue I can’t figure out is what’s happening when I drop in a code block(
   > in my case it’s Python). My habit is to do it with fences like this:
 * Unfortunately the forums seem to have eaten some of the code you posted here,
   so I’m not sure how you usually format your code snippets. When posting a Python
   snippet and using Syntax Highlighter Evolved, here is the expected syntax:
 *     ```
       [code language="python"]
       print("Hello World!")
       [/code]
       ```
   
 * If you ever deactivate the Syntax Highlighter Evolved plugin when using this 
   syntax, the shortcodes will be displayed as is.
 * When using Markdown (and Jetpack Markdown), you can also use fenced code blocks
   like so:
    [https://gist.githubusercontent.com/jeherve/25c8e38b63a0f42ff79263bbed3ef19e/raw/c4b9631e657333149251ccd4425425445c0a1657/python.md](https://gist.githubusercontent.com/jeherve/25c8e38b63a0f42ff79263bbed3ef19e/raw/c4b9631e657333149251ccd4425425445c0a1657/python.md)
 * Do you think you could post the full content of one of your blog posts in a [Pastebin](http://pastebin.com/)
   or on [Gist](http://gist.github.com/), and send me a link so I can check how 
   Jetpack renders the content on my own test site?
 * Thanks!
 *  Thread Starter [johnlaudun](https://wordpress.org/support/users/johnlaudun/)
 * (@johnlaudun)
 * [9 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/jp-markdown-and-code-blocks/#post-8721756)
 * Sorry about that. Here’s a Gist with the markdown as I wrote it:
 * [https://gist.github.com/johnlaudun/e348c561607d6369cc8dde8e784e3eac](https://gist.github.com/johnlaudun/e348c561607d6369cc8dde8e784e3eac)
 * And I went ahead and captured images with the syntax Highlighter Evolved plugin
   both activated and de-activated:
 * [http://johnlaudun.org/20170131-jetpack-markdown-troubleshooting/](http://johnlaudun.org/20170131-jetpack-markdown-troubleshooting/)
 * And, in fact, it was when I realized that PHP Markdown Extra had been rolled 
   into Jetpack — yeah, I didn’t check the documentation like I should have years
   ago — that I felt a sort of *Doh!* moment of “why not switch to the more current
   implementation?”
 * Sorry, you asked for the full post. Here’s the gist of it:
 * [https://gist.github.com/johnlaudun/d0a4306e35563f4db90526e3936ee266](https://gist.github.com/johnlaudun/d0a4306e35563f4db90526e3936ee266)
    -  This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by [johnlaudun](https://wordpress.org/support/users/johnlaudun/).
 *  Plugin Author [Jeremy Herve](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jeherve/)
 * (@jeherve)
 * Jetpack Mechanic 🚀
 * [9 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/jp-markdown-and-code-blocks/#post-8721821)
 * Here is how it looks on my end when Jetpack Markdown is active, but the syntax
   Highlighter Evolved plugin is inactive:
    [http://i.wpne.ws/ixso](http://i.wpne.ws/ixso)
   [http://i.wpne.ws/ix9s](http://i.wpne.ws/ix9s)
 * Nothing changes when I activate the Syntax Highlighter Evolved plugin.
 * Then, I tried with this post content:
    [https://gist.githubusercontent.com/jeherve/57f392f9687a43f5787123b394e773c0/raw/032cc902d5c04150f0a6c64d45870197d72ddf54/content.txt](https://gist.githubusercontent.com/jeherve/57f392f9687a43f5787123b394e773c0/raw/032cc902d5c04150f0a6c64d45870197d72ddf54/content.txt)
 * Here is how things look like when Syntax Highlighter Evolved is active:
    [http://i.wpne.ws/ixYE](http://i.wpne.ws/ixYE)
   [http://i.wpne.ws/ixrv](http://i.wpne.ws/ixrv)
 * Once I deactivate the plugin everything becomes a mess, as expected:
    [http://i.wpne.ws/ixFQ](http://i.wpne.ws/ixFQ)
 * Unfortunately I never quite get the results you got on your end. It seems that
   all `'` signs get encoded for some reason.
 * Do you use the visual editor to compose and edit your posts, or the Text editor?
 * Could you try to create a new post, while both Jetpack Markdown and Syntax Highlighter
   Evolved are active, only using the Text Editor, and paste the content here in
   the editor?
    [https://gist.githubusercontent.com/jeherve/57f392f9687a43f5787123b394e773c0/raw/032cc902d5c04150f0a6c64d45870197d72ddf54/content.txt](https://gist.githubusercontent.com/jeherve/57f392f9687a43f5787123b394e773c0/raw/032cc902d5c04150f0a6c64d45870197d72ddf54/content.txt)
 * Let me know how it goes.
 *  Thread Starter [johnlaudun](https://wordpress.org/support/users/johnlaudun/)
 * (@johnlaudun)
 * [9 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/jp-markdown-and-code-blocks/#post-8721923)
 * Here’s the editor I use: [http://johnlaudun.org/20170131-the-wp-editor-i-use/](http://johnlaudun.org/20170131-the-wp-editor-i-use/)(
   It looks just like the editing bar in these text boxes.)
 * I’m glad you are also see the difficulty with the single quote mark/apostrophe.
   What I don’t get is why if I de-activate the syntax highlighter I get the WP 
   short code and not the HTML for `<pre>` which should then generate the visual
   code block.
 * Okay, here’s the entry’s content:
 * Okay, here’s some regular prose, which isn’t explanatory at all, and then here
   comes a block of code:
 * \`python
    from stop_words import get_stop_words from nltk.corpus import stopwords
 * mod_stop = get_stop_words(‘en’)
    nltk_stop = stopwords.words(“english”)
 * print(“mod_stop is {} words, and nltk_stop is {} words”.format(len(mod_stop),
   len(nltk_stop)))
    `
 * returns:
 * \`python
    mod_stop is 174 words, and nltk_stop is 153 words `
 * And here it is live: [http://johnlaudun.org/20170131-test-post-with-jp-markdown-and-syntax-highlighting-activated/](http://johnlaudun.org/20170131-test-post-with-jp-markdown-and-syntax-highlighting-activated/)
 * Interesting, when I first posted this, I got a plain code block — with the apostrophe’s
   converted to the `&#xxx;` form, and when I double-checked that the syntax highlighter
   was active, which it was, and came back to the page, I got the plain and then,
   after a one-second delay, an update with the highlight.
 * Okay, so I think, first, this syntax highlighter is a little wonky, and I don’t
   really need my code to be pretty. All I really want is for quotation marks, be
   they single or double, and open and close angle brackets not to get converted
   to their encoded form.
    -  This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by [johnlaudun](https://wordpress.org/support/users/johnlaudun/).
 *  Thread Starter [johnlaudun](https://wordpress.org/support/users/johnlaudun/)
 * (@johnlaudun)
 * [9 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/jp-markdown-and-code-blocks/#post-8722008)
 * Oh, goodness, I deleted the syntax highlighter and now all I see is the short
   code on those posts. Is the next trouble-shooting step to deactivate Jetpack 
   and/or re-install it? (This feels like more of a voodoo move than anything else,
   but, like I said, my trouble-shooting skills with WP’s PHP codebase are as close
   to zero as it gets.)
 *  Plugin Author [Jeremy Herve](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jeherve/)
 * (@jeherve)
 * Jetpack Mechanic 🚀
 * [9 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/jp-markdown-and-code-blocks/#post-8724529)
 * > Interesting, when I first posted this, I got a plain code block — with the 
   > apostrophe’s converted to the &#xxx; form, and when I double-checked that the
   > syntax highlighter was active, which it was, and came back to the page, I got
   > the plain and then, after a one-second delay, an update with the highlight.
   > Okay, so I think, first, this syntax highlighter is a little wonky, and I don’t
   > really need my code to be pretty.
 * This is somewhat common when using the Syntax Highlighter Plugin. It has happened
   to me in the past, but always when I made the mistake of using the Visual Editor
   instead of the Text editor.
 * Since you seem to be using the Text editor, this shouldn’t be happening.
 * For what it’s worth, Jetpack’s Markdown module won’t process content that’s inside
   a shortcode, so it won’t touch anything inside a `[code]` block.
 * > I deleted the syntax highlighter and now all I see is the short code on those
   > posts.
 * That's the expected result. Once you deactivate the plugin that manages the shortcode,
   there is nothing left to process the shortcode and transform them into code blocks.
 * As long as you use the shortcodes in your posts, you'll need to use this plugin.
 * At this point, it might be worth trying to replace all instances of `[code]` 
   or `[code language=python]` by Markdown fenced blocks like so:
    [https://gist.githubusercontent.com/jeherve/25c8e38b63a0f42ff79263bbed3ef19e/raw/c4b9631e657333149251ccd4425425445c0a1657/python.md](https://gist.githubusercontent.com/jeherve/25c8e38b63a0f42ff79263bbed3ef19e/raw/c4b9631e657333149251ccd4425425445c0a1657/python.md)
 * Can you confirm that things work well when using this syntax?

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

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## Tags

 * [markdown](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/markdown/)

 * 6 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Jeremy Herve](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jeherve/)
 * Last activity: [9 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/jp-markdown-and-code-blocks/#post-8724529)
 * Status: not resolved