GitHub Flavored Markdown is getting a little Task List flavoring.
Today, we're shipping an enhancement to our Markdown pipeline to support task lists. Task lists are lists with items marked as either [ ] or [x] (incomplete or complete). For example:
- [ ] a task list item
- [ ] list syntax required
- [ ] normal **formatting**, @mentions, #1234 refs
- [ ] incomplete
- [x] completedThis renders as a list of checkboxes. If you can modify the Markdown text, you can check or uncheck the boxes and the text will automatically update.
You can use task lists to break down large issues and discourage the creation of many microscopic issues, allowing you to focus on interacting with the list instead of editing Markdown.
The overriding design goal for Markdown’s formatting syntax is to make it as readable as possible. The idea is that a Markdown-formatted document should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without looking like it’s been marked up with tags or formatting instructions. (source)
We chose this syntax to stay true to Markdown's principle of being easy to read in plain text. It is already in common use and appealing without having to be rendered.
Oh, and one more thing:
Issues and pull requests with task list items defined will summarize the task list on the pull request listing and any cross reference.