Jane Doe wrote this note. > Ship the draft on Friday.
``` One `p` element came out, and no `blockquote` element did. Where the source had a line break, the output has a space. The marker came through as the entity `>`, sitting mid-sentence just ahead of the word Ship. Two tag counts confirm the reading. Piping that same run into `grep -c ''` printed `0`. Piping it into `grep -c '>'` printed `1`, so the marker survived as text inside the paragraph. In short, a `>` line typed directly beneath a sentence joined that sentence's paragraph under the `markdown` reader in this test. ## Three settings that split the lines For `bq-tight.md`, the remaining three settings wrote matching HTML. Here is the `commonmark` run: ```sh pandoc -f commonmark -t html bq-tight.md ``` Output: ```htmlJane Doe wrote this note.
``` The `markdown-blank_before_blockquote` and `markdown_strict` runs printed those same four lines. The sentence got a `p` element of its own. The quoted line went into a `blockquote` element that holds a second `p`. The marker no longer shows up in the output: `grep -c '>'` printed `0` for both the `commonmark` run and the `markdown-blank_before_blockquote` run, and `grep -c 'Ship the draft on Friday.
'` printed `1` for each. The `markdown-blank_before_blockquote` result deserves a second look. It uses the same reader as the one-paragraph run, minus a single extension. Taking that one extension away was enough, in this test, to move the quoted line out of the paragraph and into its own element. ## When an empty line comes first The file `bq-blank.md` adds an empty line between the sentence and the marker. Pandoc gave this file identical HTML under the four settings: ```htmlJane Doe wrote this note.
``` That list includes the `markdown` run, which had joined the two lines of `bq-tight.md` into one paragraph. For `bq-blank.md`, `grep -c 'Ship the draft on Friday.
'` printed `1` under `markdown`, under `markdown-blank_before_blockquote` and under `commonmark`. Here, adding a blank line split the text from the quote under every reader setting that was tried. Plain paragraphs and the blank lines between them get their own treatment in the [paragraph spacing walkthrough](markdown-paragraphs-blank-lines.md). Headings run into a matching rule with that reader too; the [post on a heading placed right after a paragraph](markdown-heading-after-paragraph.md) has those tests. ## What the spec and the extension list say A name filter over the `pandoc --list-extensions=markdown` output kept one line, `+blank_before_blockquote`. The plus sign marks it as switched on for that reader. The same filter applied to `pandoc --list-extensions=commonmark` printed nothing for that name. The `-blank_before_blockquote` suffix changed the `markdown` output, as quoted under Three settings that split the lines. On line 3687, the CommonMark text this test used (0.31.2) states that block quotes can interrupt paragraphs. Example 245, on lines 3691-3697, gives a two-line input shaped like `bq-tight.md`, with `foo` on one line and `> bar` on the next. Its expected HTML is a `p` element followed by a `blockquote` element. That pattern matches what the `commonmark` reader wrote for `bq-tight.md` here. The `markdown_strict` run wrote the same HTML as `commonmark`. No reason for that match is offered here, since the runs do not show one. The syntax of quotes themselves, quotes nested inside other quotes, and lines that carry on a quote without their own marker belong to the [walkthrough on quote syntax and nesting](markdown-block-quotes-nested-lists.md). ## Find and fix a quote that stayed in the paragraph The steps below lean on these commands, run against the two test files: ```sh grep -n '' bq-tight.md bq-blank.md grep -n -B1 '^>' bq-tight.md bq-blank.md od -c bq-tight.md pandoc -f markdown -t html bq-tight.md | grep -c '' pandoc -f markdown -t html bq-tight.md | grep -c '>' pandoc -f markdown -t html bq-blank.md | grep -c '' pandoc -f markdown-blank_before_blockquote -t html bq-tight.md ``` Output of the second command: ```text bq-tight.md-1-Jane Doe wrote this note. bq-tight.md:2:> Ship the draft on Friday. -- bq-blank.md-2- bq-blank.md:3:> Ship the draft on Friday. ``` When a quote ended up inside the paragraph above it, these six steps follow the runs quoted here. 1. List marker lines with the line above each one. The second command put the sentence from line 1 of `bq-tight.md` above its marker line. In `bq-blank.md`, the line above the marker was line 2, and it was empty. 2. Read the bytes between the two lines. In the `od -c` dump of `bq-tight.md`, a single `\n` sat between `note.` and `>`. 3. Count quote elements in the HTML. For `markdown` runs, the `` count was `0` for `bq-tight.md` and `1` for `bq-blank.md`. 4. Look for a leftover marker. For the `markdown` run on `bq-tight.md`, `grep -c '>'` printed `1`, which showed the `>` had stayed in the text. 5. Separate the sentence from the `>` line by adding a blank one. That change produced a `blockquote` element under the four settings, as quoted under When an empty line comes first. 6. Switch the reader setting when editing the file is off the table. Here, `markdown-blank_before_blockquote`, `commonmark` and `markdown_strict` each wrote a `blockquote` element for `bq-tight.md`. ## Where Sashmark fits If Sashmark's v1 comes out the way the plan describes, you could correct a phrase while the page reads formatted. Clean Round-Trip, listed among its planned parts, would then hand each untouched line back holding the bytes it had. Another listed part, the Changes View, aims to mark edits made after your most recent pass through the file, git unneeded. It is in development and has not been released. The app itself has no AI features. See the [planned features](/features), the [help pages](/help) and the [roadmap](/roadmap) for where each part stands. More at [sashmark.com](https://www.sashmark.com/).