While I acknowledge that Markdown's lack of extensibility is a big problem, one that RST doesn't share, RST has its own problems. For example, this is how you

While I acknowledge that Markdown's lack of extensibility is a big problem, one that RST doesn't share, RST has its own problems. For example, this is how you write a link in RST: `link text <https://news.ycombinator.com>`_ Obscure, but OK. This is how you put something in monospace: ``monospace`` So then how do you make the link text contain monospace formatting? Last I checked, there was no clean way. Using non-matching bracketing characters is a terrible idea because it inhibits nesting, which has been known at least since POSIX shell introduced $(). There is really no excuse for the way RST uses backticks. This is a major reason why I prefer Markdown.