I agree but I’d just like to point out what potentially may be considered an edge case. If #272 gets included, then a ‘code’ block without any language declaration should probably not have a code tag (which pandoc markdown actually includes) and only a pre tag, because it’s assumed it’s not actually computer code, but just preformatted text in general.
So this would mean that:
``` {.class}
verbatim text
```
should output:
<pre class="class">verbatim text</pre>
instead of:
<pre><code class="class">verbatim text</code></pre>
But without the curly braces, it should of course be as normal (mathias’ proposal).
Is this the correct method of interpretation? Have I excluded another particular case where no language declaration might still be computer code/require a code tag?