1. URL parsing is a solved problem. Since I so frequently have my competence questioned on HN, I have to conclude that if I can do it, anyone can. 2. There are

1. URL parsing is a solved problem. Since I so frequently have my competence questioned on HN, I have to conclude that if I can do it, anyone can. 2. There are a number of people in this thread, and many many many more on Reddit and on other forums that use markdown, that have had a specific UX problem with markdown which we can solve. The solution will not solve all possible problems, but it will solve many of them. 3. I subscribe to the Linus Torvalds camp of software development, which is that software exists to solve user problems. 4. While the trade-off between additional code complexity (and better overall user experience) versus simpler code (and poorer overall user experience) isn't always justified, in this case I think it is. I mean, HN parses URLs for you and makes them clickable -- would you really support removing that as a feature, in favor of having simpler code, and having to copy & paste links into your browser? 5. This particular feature rather nicely lends itself to extensive testing so that you can make sure you've covered most of your edge cases. If we decide not to implement solved, testable features out of fear that some other programmer might not implement it correctly or test it thoroughly enough, then I don't know what to say about our industry other than that it's going to come to a standstill. I'm afraid that's all the energy I have tonight for arguing about things I don't really have any influence over on HN.