Bold/Italic bug

[Dave-ts]

I think I'm running up against another bold/italics bug. I did some quick searches and it looks like the other issues were considered resolved, sorry if I'm re-reporting on something already fixed that hasn't made it upstream yet.

Installed from pip current Python-Markdown version 3.0.1

The raw markdown line that breaks is:

This is text **bold *italic bold*** with more text

The output I'm getting is as follows:

<p>This is text <strong>bold *italic bold</strong>* with more text</p>

However, the following format does seem to work correctly.

This is text ***bold italic** italic* more text

The output is

<p>This is text <em><strong>bold italic</strong> italic</em> more text</p>

[waylan]

I can confirm I am seeing the same behavior in 3.0.1. However, this behavior does not exist in the latest code here on GitHub and will be available in the next release.

>>> import markdown
>>> markdown.version
'3.1.dev0'
>>> markdown.markdown('This is text ***bold italic** italic* more text')
'<p>This is text <em><strong>bold italic</strong> italic</em> more text</p>'

[facelessuser]

@waylan, I don't think you tested is case properly. It wasn't This is text ***bold italic** italic* more text that failed, but This is text **bold *italic bold*** with more text.

[facelessuser]

But I will explain a little bit why this happens.

In the pattern This is text **bold *italic bold*** with more text, the parser Sees **bold *italic bold** and makes it <strong>bold *italic bold</strong>. This leaves two * in separate tags, and they cannot be resolved or you'd end up with some weird broken HTML.

The 3rd party pmdownx.betterem can handle this, but only when smart_enable is set to handle the star syntax (it only does "smart" for underscore by default).

>>> markdown.Markdown(extensions=["pymdownx.betterem"], extension_configs={"pymdownx.betterem": {"smart_enable": "all"}}).convert("This is text **bold *italic bold*** with more text")
'<p>This is text <strong>bold <em>italic bold</em></strong> with more text</p>'

Without smart enabled for *, it does what Python Markdown does by default:

>>> markdown.Markdown(extensions=["pymdownx.betterem"]).convert("This is text **bold *italic bold*** with more text")
'<p>This is text <strong>bold *italic bold</strong>* with more text</p>'

Based on how Python Markdown works, this behavior is as I would expect. One sure fire way to avoid such confusion is to use syntax like this:

This is text **bold _italic bold_** with more text

If not, something like pymdownx.betterem may be a way to handle this. Or, we'd have to do some similar logic over here.

[facelessuser]

If we find Python Markdown's behavior acceptable here, then we should just close this.

[waylan]

Oops, apparently I copied the wrong example when I tested that. And Babelmark clearly indicates we are in the minority here. This is a bug.

[Dave-ts]

I'm not sure how the parser works for the markdown as I've not been in the code but I'm currently writing a desktop browser/editor that uses markdown in the documents for a document store.

I added formatting to my editor as is typically done. It just makes the editor code more readable. I had my bold/italics formatting regex base assumptions that bold is always the inside two asterisks when working together with italics. I'm not sure if that makes sense for the markdown package or not but I'm parsing flawless formatting in my editor at the moment in terms of italics/bold and using an asterisk. I've yet to implement and support the underscore for formatting in the editor.

I'll take a look at the betterem options to resolve the issue since I'm already using the package anyways. Thank you for the feedback @facelessuser Either way, if the bug exists, we probably want to stomp on it. if it doesn't, I apologize for wasting your time.

Thank you to the whole team for the effort you put into this project.

[waylan]

I had my bold/italics formatting regex base assumptions that bold is always the inside two asterisks when working together with italics.

That is not a safe assumption to make. That's why @facelessuser suggests usign _ and * together so you can control which is inside, and which is outside.

This is text **bold _italic bold_** with more text