4 ms·

In IPA, slashes are used for abstract phonemic notation ( pronunciation guides). Converting that to <em> would be annoying for certain communities. https://en.

• dredmorbius 3y ago
  There's the concept of escaping notation using a single backslash: \ So: **strong text** -> bold "strong text" \*\*doubled splats\*\* -> "doubled splats" w/ "**" on either side This is also cumbersome to type, but at least there's a path to what you want to present even if the character is reserved for markup.
  • cbarrick 3y ago
    Yes. I'm less concerned about it being cumbersome to write than I am about it being cumbersome to read. And again, this complaint will only be relevant in contexts where this specific convention is used.
• ilyt 3y ago
  rare enough to not matter