Stephen Harris

This plugin allows you to write posts (of any post type) using the Markdown syntax. The plugin converts the Markdown into HTML prior to saving the post. When editing a post, the plugin converts it back into Markdown syntax.
The plugin also allows you to enable Markdown in comments and bbPress forums. In these instances the plugin adds a toolbar, and preview of the processed Markdown with <a href="http://code.google.com/p/google-code-prettify/" rel="nofollow ugc">Prettify</a> syntax highlighter applied (similiar to that used in the Stack Exchange websites such as <a href="http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">WordPress Stack Exchange</a>).
WP-Markdown stores the processed HTML, so deactivating the plugin will not affect your posts, comments or bbPress forums.

WP-Markdown

Version 1.5.1 of the plugin works almost perfectly.
I'm just waiting for the upcoming 1.6 update (which is in alpha on GitHub) to be pushed, so I can use GitHub Flavor-style codeblocks specifying the exact language.



Waiting for 1.6

Allows Markdown to be enabled in posts, comments and bbPress forums.

jesucarr

The main reason for the development of this plugin was the lack of options supporting the HTML5 recommendation, where the code snippets should be tagged with <code>pre</code> followed by <code>code</code>, and optionally a class starting with <code>language-</code> and then our language.
You can use the plugin like this:
<pre><code><pre class="prettyprint"><code class="language-php">
// my code
</code></pre>
</code></pre>
Also very important is that although this plugin loads different files depending on your configuration, it fully supports caching scripts (<a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/" rel="ugc">W3 Total Cache</a>) to concatenate and compress all the css and js, so the impact in performance will be minimum.
<h4>Languages</h4>
This syntax highlighter is based on <a href="http://google-code-prettify.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/README.html" rel="nofollow ugc">Google Code Prettify</a> and should work on a number of languages including C and friends, Java, Python, Bash, SQL, HTML, XML, Javascript, Makefiles, and Rust. It works passably on Ruby, PHP, VB, and Awk and a decent subset of Perl and Ruby, but, because of commenting conventions, doesn’t work on Smalltalk.
Other languages are supported via an extension (plugin options): CSS, SQL, YAML, Visual Basic, Clojure, Scala, Latek (TeX, LaTeX), WikiText, Erlang, Go, Haskell, Lua, OCAML, SML, F#, Nemerle, Protocol Buffers, CHDL (VHDL), XQ (XQuery), Lisp, Scheme, Dart, Llvm, Mumps, Pascal, R, S, RD, TCL
<h4>Styles</h4>
Four different styles are provided, and they can be previewed in the plugin options. They are modified to make sure they don’t clash with any other styles in your theme.
You have also the option to include your custom style.
If you have a style that would like to see included in the option list, just <a href="http://www.frontendmatters.com/contact/" rel="nofollow ugc">contact me</a>, or <a href="https://github.com/jesucarr/wordpress-prettify-code-syntax" rel="nofollow ugc">fork me</a>.
<h4>Notes</h4>
<ul>
<li>
Plugin options are at Settings > Prettify Code Syntax. Have a look at the Screenshots tab to see how it looks like.
</li>
<li>
If you don’t care too much about the HTML5 recommendation, you can skip the <code>language-</code> class. The code always gets detected automatically.
</li>
<li>
It will also work if you only use a <code>pre</code> tag without the <code>code</code> tag (but long lines will be wrapped instead of get horizontal scroll), or if you only use a <code>code</code> tag with the <code>prettyprint</code> class (but if you don’t use <code>pre</code> your spaces/returns won’t be maintained.)
</li>
<li>
Be careful using the Visual Editor tab when inserting code, as some HTML tags will be modified or removed.
</li>
<li>
Using a chaching plugin like W3 Total Cache is highly recommended.
</li>
</ul>
<h4>Demo</h4>
You can find a <a href="http://www.frontendmatters.com/open-source/wordpress-plugins/prettify-code-syntax/" rel="nofollow ugc">front end demo</a> here a the bottom.

Prettify Code Syntax

Code syntax highlighter using Google Prettify, supporting the HTML5 recommendation, and caching plugins.

WP-Markdown vs Prettify Code Syntax