user 3.14159
I really love the feature of the site to allow the user to post codes with line breaks, indented lines (I'm sure there is a more professional term for that) and so on in comments, and of course in regular posts. However, there is one point which could perhaps be improved. If the user adds code immediately after the three back ticks that delimit it, the first line gets gobbled. For instance, if you type
```
(back tick)(back tick)(back tick) pft
quack
(back tick)(back tick)(back tick)
```
i.e.
![Screen Shot 2020-11-01 at 6.43.14 PM.png](/image?hash=b6739aa2b8684f0b0ed05752cefb55913449dcaa295c502c303d194c966e29d7)
you will get to see only `quack`, i.e. 
![Screen Shot 2020-11-01 at 6.46.09 PM.png](/image?hash=79ad78685afffe7dd708091fb301dc8af064a70c69c6dc9298e34b19d25aa605)

As explained nicely in [Andriy M's answer](https://topanswers.xyz/meta?q=1481#a1713), this has very good reasons. However, not every community may be aware of this reason. For instance, in the TeX community one sees often codes in which the first line contains the `\documentclass` command. While it is true that, if the OP watches carefully, they will realize that this line gets suppressed in a side-by-side view when editing questions or answers, this is harder to detect in comments, especially if the code is longish. I am wondering if one could issue a warning if the `pft` equivalent in the LaTeX community starts with a `\`, in which case almost certainly this should belong to the code.
Top Answer
Jack Douglas
I can see how this could be annoying — and it is not impossible for us to implement a technical solution to the problem for tex.ta at least.

However I don't think we should. This is basically a markdown training issue and markdown is so widely used that we shouldn't break our conformance to the spec here to help those who are less familiar with it. That rules out "or just make it visible".

The other option, "inform the user that the first line will be gobbled", also has pitfalls. Most people find popups annoying most of the time. There are 101 other markdown quirks that all need to be learned, why help the user with this one only?

I think the better solution is to improve the discoverability of clear markdown documentation, which is something we are thinking about.
Answer #2
Andriy M
When you are delimiting a piece of *inline* code, the backticks and the code itself go on the same line, like this:

``` none
`inline code`
```

or

``` none
``inline code``
```

or

``` none
```inline code```
```

However, when you want to add a *multi-line* piece of code and you want to use backticks for that, you need to use what is called a *fenced code block*, with the triple backticks (called *code fences*) going around the code on *separate lines*.

    ```
    multi-line
    code block
    ```

As FoggyFinder has mentioned in a comment, the opening code fence may optionally be followed by a language specifier to serve as a hint for the syntax highlighter.

    ``` sql
    multi-line
    code block
    ```

But the actual code *must* start on the line *following* the opening code fence.

So when you place the opening triple backticks on the first line of code and the line gets consumed as a result, that is the expected effect, that is by design.

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