I agree with the reasoning for the order (URL first, then description).

However, why is the pipe character needed as a separator? A URL normally does not contain whitespaces, so that would be a very convenient separator (just like in MediaWiki).

If the URL does contain a whitespace, however, it should either be encoded as "%20", or the pipe character could be used instead as fallback option for the separator.

-- FND 2007-12-14, 11:56 UTC

----

I've found that a pipe character makes it easier to extend the link syntax, e.g.
{{{
[text|link|attributes]
}}}

The text often has spaces, so therefore using space as a separator char makes extension ... difficult.

My preference is, of course, text first, link next.

-- JanneJalkanen