reStructuredText and Markdown
The reStructuredText format (also known as RST, ReST, or reST) was developed in 2002 as a language that implements enough markup to be usable, but is simple enough to be readable as plain text. These two features make it readable enough to use in code, yet still versatile enough to generate pretty and useful documentation.
The Markdown format is really similar to reStructuredText and largely comparable. While reStructuredText is slightly older (2012) than Markdown (2014), the Markdown format has gained a bit more popularity because it’s a bit simpler and less Python-focused. Both standards are excellent for writing text that is legible straightaway and can easily be converted to other formats such as HTML or PDF files.
The main advantages of reST are:
- A very extensive feature set
- A strictly defined standard
- Easy extensibility
The main advantages of Markdown are:
- It is less Python-centric, which...
