diff --git a/Markdown.pl b/Markdown.pl
index cbc240b..e953f23 100755
--- a/Markdown.pl
+++ b/Markdown.pl
@@ -1445,6 +1445,7 @@ sub Markdown {
 sub _HashBTCodeBlocks {
 #
 #   Process Markdown backticks (```) delimited code blocks
+#   Process some (limited recognition) tilde (~~~) delimited code blocks
 #
     my $text = shift;
     my $less_than_indent = $opt{indent_width} - 1;
@@ -1454,11 +1455,38 @@ sub _HashBTCodeBlocks {
 		([ ]{0,$less_than_indent})``(`+)[ \t]*(?:([\w.+-]+[#]?)(?:[ \t][ \t\w.+-]*)?)?\n
 	     ( # $4 = the code block -- one or more lines, starting with ```
 	      (?:
-		.*\n+
+		.*\n
 	      )+?
 	     )
 	    # and ending with ``` or end of document
-	    (?:(?:[ ]{0,$less_than_indent}``\2[ \t]*(?:\n|\Z))|\Z)
+	    (?:(?:[ ]{0,$less_than_indent}``\2`*[ \t]*(?:\n|\Z))|\Z)
+	}{
+	    # $2 contains syntax highlighting to use if defined
+	    my $leadsp = length($1);
+	    my $codeblock = $4;
+	    $codeblock =~ s/[ \t]+$//mg; # trim trailing spaces on lines
+	    $codeblock = _DeTab($codeblock, 8, $leadsp); # physical tab stops are always 8
+	    $codeblock =~ s/\A\n+//; # trim leading newlines
+	    $codeblock =~ s/\s+\z//; # trim trailing whitespace
+	    $codeblock = _EncodeCode($codeblock); # or run highlighter here
+	    $codeblock = "<div class=\"$opt{style_prefix}code-bt\"><pre style=\"display:none\"></pre><pre><code>"
+		. $codeblock . "\n</code></pre></div>";
+
+	    my $key = block_id($codeblock);
+	    $g_html_blocks{$key} = $codeblock;
+	    "\n\n" . $key . "\n\n";
+	}egmx;
+
+    $text =~ s{
+	    (?:(?<=\n)|\A)
+		([ ]{0,$less_than_indent})~~(~)[ \t]*(?:([\w.+-]+[#]?)(?:[ \t][ \t\w.+-]*)?)?\n
+	     ( # $4 = the code block -- one or more lines, starting with ~~~
+	      (?:
+		.*\n
+	      )+?
+	     )
+	    # and ending with ~~~ or end of document
+	    (?:(?:[ ]{0,$less_than_indent}~~\2~*[ \t]*(?:\n|\Z))|\Z)
 	}{
 	    # $2 contains syntax highlighting to use if defined
 	    my $leadsp = length($1);
diff --git a/syntax.md b/syntax.md
index e65b46b..74d537c 100644
--- a/syntax.md
+++ b/syntax.md
@@ -241,8 +241,12 @@ headers). For example:
       This is an H3
       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-Any number of underlining `=`'s, `-`'s or `~`'s will work.  An optional
-matching "overline" may precede the header like so:
+Any number of underlining `=`'s will work.  Any number of underlining
+`-`'s will work but be careful it's not mistaken for a horizontal rule.
+For `~`'s, try to use at least four to avoid being mistaken for
+strike through text or a `~~~`-delimited code block.
+
+An optional matching "overline" may precede the header like so:
 
       =============
       This is an H1
@@ -767,6 +771,11 @@ element), the indentation technique must be used.
 Also note that within a backticks-delimited code block, tab characters
 are always expanded with the tab stop locations 8 characters apart.
 
+As an alternative to using backticks, limited recognition is available
+for tilde-delimited code blocks.  Instead of backtick quotes, exactly 3
+tildes (`~~~`) may be used to introduce the code block in which case
+it must also be closed by tildes instead of backtick quotes.
+
 Within a code block, ampersands (`&`) and angle brackets (`<` and `>`)
 are automatically converted into HTML entities. This makes it very
 easy to include example HTML source code using Markdown -- just paste