<p>Here is some code I could not get to format properly in markdown, this is straight C code, pasted into the text box with the '4 spaces' format to denote code:</p>

<pre><code>#define PRINT(x, format, ...) \
if ( x ) { \
    if ( debug_fd != NULL ) { \
        fprintf(debug_fd, format, ##__VA_ARGS__); \
    } \
    else { \
        fprintf(stdout, format, ##__VA_ARGS__); \
    } \
}
</code></pre>

<p>It seems as though the '\' causes the newlines to be ignored.  Ok fine, I am used to this in bash, but if I put '\' the second one doesn't show up.  As if the second one is absorbed.   Am I missing something?</p>

[{'answer_id': 42764, 'author': 'Julio César', 'author_id': 2148, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/2148', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>Add at least four spaces or a hard tab before each line of the code. Like this:</p>\n\n<pre><code>#define PRINT(x, format, ...) \\\nif ( x ) { \\\n    if ( debug_fd != NULL ) { \\\n        fprintf(debug_fd, format, ##VA_ARGS); \\\n} \\\nelse { \\\n    fprintf(stdout, format, ##VA_ARGS); \\\n} \\\n}\n</code></pre>\n'}, {'answer_id': 42767, 'author': 'FlySwat', 'author_id': 1965, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1965', 'pm_score': -1, 'selected': False, 'text': '<pre><code>#define PRINT(x, format, ...)\nif ( x ) \n{\n    if ( debug_fd != NULL ) \n    { \n        fprintf(debug_fd, format, ##VA_ARGS); \n    } \n    else \n    { \n        fprintf(stdout, format, ##VA_ARGS); \n    } \n}\n</code></pre>\n'}, {'answer_id': 42776, 'author': 'OwenP', 'author_id': 2547, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/2547', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': True, 'text': '<p>You can also use the HTML tags &lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt; in succession.  I find this easier for pasting code into the window.</p>\n\n<p><pre><code>#define PRINT(x, format, ...)\nif ( x ) \n{\n    if ( debug_fd != NULL ) \n    { \n        fprintf(debug_fd, format, ##VA_ARGS); \n    } \n    else \n    { \n        fprintf(stdout, format, ##VA_ARGS); \n    } \n}</pre></code></p>\n'}]
['https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/42762', 'https://Stackoverflow.com', 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/3663/']