on the philosophical aspects of a specification

[Andrea Censi]

>  Maybe what is needed is some kind of syntax checker to run the source

>  through to point out to users where there are errors and/or confusing

>  markup. This could be a separate function from markdown itself, like

>  markdown-lint, or a separate output option of markdown. A separate

>  function would keep the markdown parser smaller. A syntax checker would

>  also help users identify what the problem is when they get unexpected

>  results.


Maruku, which uses a parser, does warn[^1] the user if something
strange is read (unclosed */**, not valid XML, unclosed ![...], etc.).
Some users wrote me that they really liked such feature because it
helped them to write proper documents.


[^1]: via stderr for command-line maruku; via a callback when maruku
is used as a library.

-- 
Andrea Censi
PhD student, Control & Dynamical Systems, Caltech
http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~andrea/
    "Life is too important to be taken seriously" (Oscar Wilde)