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  • 52
    Does this also mean we're getting header IDs? Commented Jun 1, 2020 at 11:56
  • 18
    Spoiler syntax is going to remain the same - although it's not part of the CommonMark specification. Commented Jun 1, 2020 at 11:59
  • 3
    @ZoeTheLockdownPrincess "You can still use indented code blocks but can’t declare the preferred language explicitly moving forward." Commented Jun 1, 2020 at 12:00
  • 39
    This migration won't enable header IDs. This migration is already a big thing so we don't want to conflate adding new features with running the migration itself. Both, markdown-it and markdig support header IDs via plugins so implementing this feature will now be easier than before - but it remains a different discussion. Commented Jun 1, 2020 at 12:05
  • 4
    @Laurel the apps likely don't render the HTML themselves, but rather it's done in the API level. If that's the case, apps won't need any change. But if the render is done in the app itself.... this is essentially the final straw and they'll have to shut them down. Waiting for official response. Commented Jun 1, 2020 at 12:34
  • 11
    I run the markdown through the old renderer, run the markdown through the new renderer, scrub both HTML versions with good ol' regular expressions and compare the two HTML strings. It's not sophisticated but gets the job done just fine and is fast enough to handle millions of posts in my lifetime. I hope to get a blog post out soon where I can share more insights. Commented Jun 1, 2020 at 18:17
  • 11
    What about RTL direction, currently unsupported by CommonMark? Commented Jun 1, 2020 at 18:39
  • 13
    Oh boy, here we go again... Commented Jun 1, 2020 at 18:55
  • 9
    @Mast Huh? If the displayed text of a post would get altered by the new Markdown engines, then its Markdown will not be updated, even if the difference is a single whitespace. It will continue to be displayed via its current HTML, which was created by the old Markdown engine. So its appearance will be unaltered. However, when someone attempts to edit such a post they will have to comply with the new Markdown rules. This may cause problems. Eg, someone edits a post to fix some minor thing but then discovers that they need to make major changes so that the post renders correctly. Commented Jun 2, 2020 at 10:44
  • 77
    Tables ASAP, PLEASE! Commented Jun 2, 2020 at 11:49
  • 4
    What about placeholders of the form [...], such as tag ([tag:discussion] for discussion) or site reference ([scifi.se] for Science Fiction & Fantasy)? Are those just modelled as links whose definition is invisible at the time of writing? Commented Jun 2, 2020 at 11:52
  • 32
    Because we can't reasonably support two different active markdown renderers without tripping eventually. There are good reasons to move forward outlined in the post - compatibility, user experience, ease of maintenance, simpler future feature development being some of them. Commented Jun 2, 2020 at 15:31
  • 4
    This is good, in my opinion. It is absolutely true that Markdown is an incomplete spec, and some solid flavor needs to be used instead. My peronal favorite happens to be kramdown, but it's not a good choice to substitute for standard Markdown in most contexts. CommonMark sounds like a good selection. Commented Jun 2, 2020 at 21:05
  • 4
    @Sean You can nest blockquotes pretty much the same way you nested them before. Instead of using > you'd start each line of a nested blockquote with >> (or more characters if you want to nest even deeper). Commented Jun 4, 2020 at 6:35
  • 11
    Yay! Fantastic! I've updated the commonmark.org website to reflect this change! Commented Jun 28, 2020 at 17:29