Implicit Link Names

[John Gruber]

Aaron Swartz <me at aaronsw.com> wrote on 03/30/04 at 5:59p:

> That was my original idea, but Gruber was concerned it would be too 
> easily tripped, e.g. in:
> 
>   Condi said, "[The President] loves his job."

I remember that, but now I can't remember *why* I thought it'd be
easily tripped. Because, as I mentioned in my last message, this
would only turn into a link if you also defined a link like this
somewhere:

    [the president]: http://bushisdumb.com/

I suppose I could dig up the email, but I think the reason I
rejected this months ago is that at the time, I wasn't planning to
allow spaces in link reference names. But they *are* supported, so
perhaps this shortcut ought to be hooked up.

I think the odds of accidental triggering are very low, because
you'd have to define a link with that text. And even if you *did*
trigger it by accident, I think most people would think it's a
reasonable thing.

Unless I think of some other reason, I'll hook this up and release a
version of Markdown with this to the list.

-J.G.