URLs with underscores

[Bowerbird at aol.com]

paul said:

>   Markdown is designed to make it easier to write HTML. 

>   So I think there's a presumption in the language design 

>   that it'll be converted into HTML.


that presumption seems well-founded in view of the fact that
italics has always been how the "em" tag is rendered by default.

the fact that you can change that -- with a stylesheet --
doesn't really change the fact that people _expect_ italics.

it also means that if people turn off your spreadsheet,
as they will if it violates their expectations too much,
the "emphasis" they will actually see will be _italics_...

whether we like it or not, final control now resides in end-users.

-bowerbird

p.s.  and it still remains the case that none of this is relevant to
the problem of inappropriate treatment of a u.r.l. with underscores.
but i'm glad you're getting in your daily prayers to the gods for the 
separation of content and display; it's important to stay religious.