New link syntax

[Daniel Axelrod]

On Wednesday, March 31, 2004, at 04:27  PM, european bob wrote:
> One thing that worries me about implicit links is ambiguity - what is
> [this] [link] for example? <a href="[link]">this</a>, or <a
> href="[this]">this</a> <a href="[link]">link</a> ?
Ooooh, good catch. Sometimes people make sentences in which every word 
is a different link, like [here][1]. In that kind of case, implicit 
link syntax is even more useful.
[1]: http://www.zeldman.com/daily/1203j.shtml#update

> Maybe implicit links should be rather more [[different]]. Or look
> kind-of [linkish]->.

I like the `[[double bracket]]` syntax a lot.

The problem with `[the arrow]->` is that greater-than and less-than (at 
least in the middle of lines) are used for HTML right now, and HTML 
embedded in MD should look signifigantly different from MD. The arrow 
also looks like it's pointing to the next word after the link, which 
has nothing to do with the link.

> (All of this may be irrelevant corner-case chasing though; which is
> usually an activity I disapprove of ;)
Corner-case chasing? Maybe. Irrelevant? Not a chance. You *have* to 
consider corner cases when designing a system like this, especially 
because you're trying to design a syntax that still feels natural to 
write.