Please can people format code properly

Question

Recently I've seen a lot of code being formatted as quote. This is not how it should be done.

All code should be formatted with one of two styles.

1. If it is just 1 line, with other text around it, use the ` ` formatting, like this:

   Hello. This is code and continued sentence.

2. If it is one line, but on its own, it should have 4 spaces before it:

   Hello. This is code
   

   To save adding the 4 spaces to each line manually, highlight your block of code and then click the { } button on the editing toolbar or press CTRL+k.

3. If it is multi line, use the 4 spaces before each line:

   Hello.
   This is code
   

   To save adding the 4 spaces to each line manually, highlight your block of code and click the { } button on the editing toolbar.

4. If it's multi line and in a list, indent the code 8 spaces:

   • Hello

   • This is a list

     Hello
     This is code.
     

How not to do it.

1. Accent (``) formatting on a multi-line code block:

   Hello. This is badly formatted code

2. Quote format (even if you append the 2 spaces):

   Hello. This is badly formatted code

3. 2 line breaks between each line:

   Hello.
   
   This is badly formatted code
   

4. No formatting. Seriously, this is so hard to read. Compare this with this:

   Hello. This is badly formatted code

5. HTML tags (<code>)

   Hello. This is badly formatted code

   HTML tags (<pre>). It looks okay, but is less nice to edit.

   Hello.
   This is badly formatted code
   

6. Using speech marks

   "Hello. This is badly formatted code"

Reminder:

All code should be between ` characters (grave accent, often found below the ESC key), or have 4 spaces at the start of the question.

`Only format inline code with this syntax`

    Format multiline code with this syntax

Answer 1

There is one special case where <pre> may be desirable instead of 4 spaces:

This is the important part of the program

Notice that I can use <strong></strong> within the block of code when I use <pre>. However, if I try to do that with the 4-space indent, all I get is:

This is the <strong>important</strong> part of the program

Answer 2

If you put a code block after a list, the code block isn't formatted properly:

• bullet

  code block

You can resolve this by indenting the code block 8 spaces, which nests it under the bullet:

• bullet

  code block
  

Or put something invisible between them, like an HTML comment <!-- comment --> or a Markdown comment <% comment %>, which doesn't nest it:

• bullet

code block