The root problem here is that every HTML WYSIWIG editor (from MS Word to TinyMCE) uses their own special blend of tags when creating HTML. There's only a handful of tags that are generated by Markdown, the problem is that editors often don't use standard tags (e.g. <span class="bold">) or they try to do too much and enable every feature that exists in HTML. This causes an absolute mess where one editor can't really parse another's output. (Sometimes the web based ones have trouble dealing with their own markup - turning HTML into a write-only language akin to regex).
Markdown is just a horrible solution to this problem. Rather than 'Common Markdown' there really needs to be 'Common Markup' which strictly limits the tags WYSIWYG editors use. This would enable true interop and solve the real issue for most people who could - like the author pointed out - see the formatting they were using.
Think of it as the equivalent of ASM.js for markup - only the core tags (the ones Markdown uses) would be used, and only in a specific way. That would speed up parsing, processing and display and none of us would have to remember if adding a link uses () or [] first again (I always get it backwards).
> ... none of us would have to remember if adding a link uses () or [] first again (I always get it backwards)
I also often forgot, until I read this paraphrased explanation [0]: when we write, we are much more likely to parenthesize than "bracketize" (as in this parenthetical), so the square brackets [] go first when making a link. This makes it easier for the parser.
[0] I read this in a comment on HN, but sadly I cannot find the comment, else I would give proper attribution.
Markdown is just a horrible solution to this problem. Rather than 'Common Markdown' there really needs to be 'Common Markup' which strictly limits the tags WYSIWYG editors use. This would enable true interop and solve the real issue for most people who could - like the author pointed out - see the formatting they were using.
Think of it as the equivalent of ASM.js for markup - only the core tags (the ones Markdown uses) would be used, and only in a specific way. That would speed up parsing, processing and display and none of us would have to remember if adding a link uses () or [] first again (I always get it backwards).