markdown it vs. pandoc

1. Configuration similarly to pandoc's configuration
2. Support three main markdown flavors:
   1. commonmark
   2. markdown_github
   3. markdown_pandoc
3. Smart punctuation should be configurable.
4. Support the following extensions:
   • checkboxes: https://www.npmjs.com/package/markdown-it-checkbox
   • emoji: https://www.npmjs.com/package/markdown-it-emoji
   • Optional:
     • https://www.npmjs.com/package/markdown-it-toc
     • https://www.npmjs.com/package/markdown-it-smartarrows
     • https://www.npmjs.com/package/markdown-it-abbr

Topic	Pandoc Feature	importance	markdown-it support
Headers	blank_before_header	low	yes
Headers	header_attributes	low	plugin?
Headers	auto_identifiers	low	plugin?
Headers	implicit_header_references	low	???
Images	implicit_figures		plugin
Blockquote	blank_before_blockquote	low	no support
Code	fenced_code_blocks	high	built in
Code	backtick_code_blocks	high	built in
Code	fenced_code_attributes	medium	built in^1, plugin?
Code	inline_code_attributes	medium	no support
Line blocks	line_blocks	medium	???
Lists	fancy_lists	medium	???
Lists	startnum	medium	built in
Lists	definition_lists	medium	plugin
Lists	example_lists	medium	???
Tables	table_cpations	medium	???
Tables	simple_tables	medium	???
Tables	multiline_tables	medium	???
Tables	grid_tables	medium	???
Tables	pipe_tables	high	built in
Metadata	pandoc_title_block	low	???
Metadata	yaml_metadata_block	low	Plugins: js-yaml-front-matter
Escapes	all_symbols_escapable	medium	built in
Emphasis	intraword_underscores	high	built in
Emphasis	strikeout	high	built in
Emphasis	superscript, subscript	high	Plugins: npm_sup, npm_sub
Math	tex_math_dollars	high	plugin
Math	latex_macros	medium	???
Raw HTML	raw_html	high	built in
Raw HTML	markdown_in_html_blocks	high	built in^2
Links	shortcut_reference_links	medium	built in
Footnotes	footnotes	high	plugin
Footnotes	inline_notes	high	plugin
Citations	citations	medium	???
Divs	fenced_divs	high	plugin
Spans	bracketed_spans	high	???

For a list of plugins that are officially recommended by markdown-it, see markdown-it#syntax-extensions.

^1: markdown-it does not support complex fenced code attributes like {#mycode .haskell .numberLines startFrom="100"}, only simple haskell

^2: There needs to be a new line between html and markdown content, for more information see text below http://spec.commonmark.org/0.21/#example-139