don't interpret underscores to mean 'italic' when used in the middle of a word.

[raboof]

Description

When displaying a string that contains underscores, such as #_ircnet_#hsnijmegen:irc.snt.utwente.nl, the underscores are removed and the 'ircnet' fragment is shown in italic ("#ircnet#hsnijmegen:irc.snt.utwente.nl").

It would be nicer to leave underscores be when encountered in the middle of a word, and only convert them to italic when they are added on word boundaries.

Version information

• Platform: web (in-browser)

For the web app:

• Browser: Firefox 61.0.1
• OS: Debian Linux
• URL: riot.im/app

[t3chguy]

This is the behaviour of CommonMark

Related element-hq/element-web#6434 element-hq/element-web#3534

[ara4n]

dup element-hq/element-web#4674

[raboof]

I'm not sure this is really a duplicate of element-hq/element-web#4674 because that is specifically about URL's and this is a non-URL string. A fix for element-hq/element-web#4674 may or may not fix this case.

[ara4n]

Yup, you're right - it's actually a regression of element-hq/element-web#3428. It's probably very similar to element-hq/element-web#4674 but may not be. Will reopen.

[lampholder]

Right, so commonmark (I believe) does the 'right thing' for underscores in the middle of words.

The problem is, it looks like commonmark doesn't consider # a word character: reference impl of commonmark showing the difference.

Fwiw, GFM has exactly the same issue: #ircnet#hsnijmegen:irc.snt.utwente.nl

element-hq/element-web#4674 (comment) outlines some possible solutions. I'd really like us to stick to an agreed markdown standard; could we address this with some creative pilling (by which I mean turning all aliases to pills and then mandating our own formatting?)

[raboof]

What are/is pills/pilling?