Making The Case Against Markdown

A critique of Markdown as a document formatting tool, arguing that despite its appeal as a simple syntax, its implementation is deeply flawed. Key issues include the complexity of parsing Markdown (making it vulnerable to ReDoS attacks), the need to bundle an HTML parser for inline HTML compliance, XSS-related CVEs, and the proliferation of incompatible dialects like GitHub-Flavored Markdown. The core argument is that Markdown fails to commit to being either a simple text formatter or a proper document language, leaving it awkwardly straddling both worlds.