How to use code block formatting in gmail (or any other email)?

I discovered a plug-in (at least for Google chrome) called Markdown that is a lightweight markup language used for formatting text. It is currently used for project communication on GitHub and BitBucket repositories. I am sure there are similar solutions out there, but a browser plug-in like Markdown seems like a good way to go.

Through the use of tags, I can quote code and scripts, like the one in the above question, into a desired format. Simply adding three backticks (```) before and after any code will create a code block.

http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/