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.  I think we should ignore what HTML does, since HTML was never designed to be human-readable, and the way it works is an artifact of the language structure itself.  HTML syntax should not be used to justify any design decisions on WikiCreole, unless it would result in something which would be impossible to do in HTML/CSS, of course :-)

-- JanneJalkanen

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Okay, if you want to add more parameters, then you absolutely need a special separator like the pipe char.

As for "text first, link next", I guess that's a personal preference; I personally wouldn't like that at all (it's one of the few things I hate about TiddlyWiki... ). That's mainly because I usually grab a URL first and only think about a title/description afterwards.
-- FND 2007-12-14, 18:22 UTC