Markdown help: escaping intendation in lists for code blocks

Question

1. Lists are nice

Because they help bringing order and readability into a post.

2. They may also be titles

Which helps with quickly skimming answers, too.

3. However,

   The intendation is also needed for code blocks - but this block here was intendated with CTRL+k, which does not automatically adjust for the need for

   7 spaces before being formatted as code block, i.e. I added 3 more spaces here.
   One may break the need for 7 spaces with a horizontal line
   

---

but this interrupts the numbered item/ bullet point and it is unclear
whether the code is part of the bullet point or not.

4. Backtics

do not work as they disregard linebreaks (this block has two of them).

5. So the question is:

Is there a more elegant way to break out of the intendation for lists when introducing a code block?

I prefer having any code block not intendated despite being part of a list but ensure that it is clear that the code block is part of the current list item.

Answer 1

Personally, I do indented code blocks in lists using the triple backtick syntax, and then I use Ctrl+K on them to do the indentation:

1. So, first write the code block this way:

   * Some list item showing a way of writing a particular loop:
   ```sh
   unset -v err
   for name do
       [ ! -f "$name" ] && err=true
   fi
   "${err-false}" && exit 1
   ```
   ```shell
   $ ./myscript argument
   ```
   

2. Then use Ctrl+K on the code block:

   * Some list item showing a way of writing a particular loop:
       ```sh
       unset -v err
       for name do
           [ ! -f "$name" ] && err=true
       fi
       "${err-false}" && exit 1
       ```
       ```shell
       $ ./myscript argument
       ```
   

3. The result:

   • Some list item showing a way of writing a particular loop:

     unset -v err
     for name do
         [ ! -f "$name" ] && err=true
     fi
     "${err-false}" && exit 1
     

     $ ./myscript argument
     

In general, I treat Ctrl+K as "indent by 4 spaces" rather than as "format as code block". Using the triple backtick way of doing the code blocks and Ctrl+K for doing indentation by four spaces seems to do the right thing.

By the way, I formatted the dotted list item at the end there as a sub-item of the 3. by marking the dotted item and the already indented code blocks, and pressing Ctrl+K once.

Answer 2

Code blocks not intended in the following cases:

1. Prepending, non-intended text

This text is not intended and thus

neither is this code block.
It is lead by 4 spaces

2. A prepending, invisible HTML-comment

This code block is prepended by <!-- -->
and this works with 4 spaces and no previous text.

As taken form the meta-SO reference kindly pointed out by @fra-san.

---

Code blocks need 7-space indentation, and are intended themselves, in the following cases:

1. No previous text

   intended code block with
   7 leading spaces
   

2. Previous text is intended

   4-space intended text

   followed by a 7-space intended
   code block
   

---

As far as I can see, CTRL+k is not smart when it comes to automatically adjust to the need of 7 spaces for intended code blocks.