The canonical way of showing BBCode code is by using the<tt class="bbc_tt">[code]</tt>tag.  For example:<br/><div class="floatleft"><div class="codeheader">Code: <a class="codeoperation" href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="return smfSelectText(this);">[Select]</a></div><pre style="margin: 0; padding: 0;"><code class="bbc_code">[code] some code here [⁠/code]</code></pre></div><br class="clear_left"/><br/><br/>However, it has several limitations:<br/>1. It cannot be used inline<br/>2. It messes up tables<br/>2. It cannot contain embedded<tt class="bbc_tt">[/code]</tt>closing tags<br/><br/>Wait a minute, you exclaim indignantly, how can you claim that a code section cannot contain<tt class="bbc_tt">[⁠/code]</tt>closing tags when you just showed an example above?!<br/><br/>The answer to that is simple: I cheated.  More on that later.  First things first.<br/><br/><br/>An alternative to using<tt class="bbc_tt">[code]</tt>tags is surrounding your code with<tt class="bbc_tt">[nobbc]</tt>and<tt class="bbc_tt">[⁠/nobbc]</tt>tags.  For example:<br/><div class="floatleft"><div class="codeheader">Code: <a class="codeoperation" href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="return smfSelectText(this);">[Select]</a></div><pre style="margin: 0; padding: 0;"><code class="bbc_code">[nobbc] some code here [/nobbc]</code></pre></div><br class="clear_left"/><br/><br/>1. It can be used inline, as shown above.<br/>2. It can be put inside a table without messing it up<br/>2. You can use<tt class="bbc_tt">[/code]</tt>closing tags inside a<tt class="bbc_tt">[nobbc]</tt>section (but you cannot use<tt class="bbc_tt">[⁠/nobbc]</tt>closing tags)<br/><br/>Yes Virginia, I cheated again.  Have patience, I promise all will be revealed in a moment.<br/><br/>You can also get more fancy, by wrapping the<tt class="bbc_tt">[nobbc]</tt>part in<tt class="bbc_tt">[tt]</tt>tags to use a proportional "teletype" font, like this:<br/><div class="floatleft"><div class="codeheader">Code: <a class="codeoperation" href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="return smfSelectText(this);">[Select]</a></div><pre style="margin: 0; padding: 0;"><code class="bbc_code">[color=orangered][tt][nobbc] some code here [/nobbc][/tt][/color]</code></pre></div><br class="clear_left"/><br/><br/>Or make it bold, colourful, etc.  Just remember to put all formatting<strong>outside</strong>the<tt class="bbc_tt">[nobbc]</tt>part.<br/><br/><br/>Another alternative, which has a different trade-off of benefits and drawbacks, is to cheat.<br/><br/>An opening tag consists of an opening bracket, the code of the tag, and the closing bracket, with no other characters (or spaces) between those elements.<br/>Similarly, a closing tag consists of an opening bracket, a slash, the code of the tag, and the closing bracket, with no other characters (or spaces) between those elements.<br/>If we insert other characters between the elements, the result is no longer interpreted as a tag.  For example,<tt class="bbc_tt">[ /code]</tt>,<tt class="bbc_tt">[/ code]</tt>, and<tt class="bbc_tt">[/code ]</tt>are not valid tags and are treated as plain text.<br/><br/>That's all well, except that when we want something that looks like a tag but does not behave like one, the extra spaces spoil the illusion.  Moreover, the browser may insert line breaks where the spaces appear when it re-flows the text.  Bleh!<br/><br/>Now what if we had an invisible space character, that takes no space (pun fully intended) and also would not break across lines?  Turns out, we do!<br/><br/>Enter the word joiner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_joiner), an invisible, zero-width, non-breaking Unicode character that will do exactly what we want if we insert it after the opening bracket, or the slash, or the code, or before the closing bracket (I personally prefer the 1st option).  The only question is, how to do it.<br/><br/>There are several options.  Those that can can enter arbitrary Unicode characters from the keyboard, can use the hexadecimal 2060 code.<br/><br/>Otherwise, it can be copied to the clipboard from here (https://unicode.flopp.net/c/2060), here (https://codepoints.net/U+2060), or here (https://unicode-table.com/en/2060/), and then pasted into your post.  Note that you will not see any visual indication that it worked, but you can verify by using the arrow keys to move the caret: when going over the WJ character, it will appear to stay in place.<br/><br/>My personal favourite is to use the Elliquiy improver (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=230790) script and add it once as a snippet.<br/><br/>Easy peasy.<br/><br/>However, be aware that there is a bug (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=320398.msg15418700#msg15418700) that will mess up any and all Unicode characters in your post if you try to edit it using the inline modify button ((https://elliquiy.com/forums/Themes/elliquiy2/images/icons/modify_inline.gif)) below the post, so make sure to only use the (https://elliquiy.com/forums/Themes/elliquiy2/images/icons/modify_inline.gif)<strong>Modify</strong>button above the post in such cases.<br/><br/>That's all for now.<br/>/sign off<br/>