But since the numbers given in Markdown for ordered lists are not literal, the numbering in the rendered output may be different. But your use case, @chrisalley, is an important one. How to refer to items in an ordered list from elsewhere in the same content? The proper solution is to provide a reference syntax, offhand something like (but better than):
1. Item A
3. Item C (Item B got deleted)
4. Item D
Here is a paragraph that refers to Option {{#3}}.
Which would render as:
1. Item A
2. Item C (Item B got deleted)
3. Item D
Here is a paragraph that refers to Option 2.
EDIT: I just realized my idea might not work, since CSS styling would be applied after the Markdown was rendered to HTML, meaning the reference could not reflect the style (number, letter, roman numeral)… Or can it? Is there an HTML/CSS trick to support this?
My original point is just a preference. If it turns out that the pros of supporting specified list styles in Markdown outweigh the pros of separation of concerns, I can get behind it. But it does seem to go against the design principles of Markdown and its most common output format, HTML. Yes, HTML supports inline declaration of styling, but that’s because HTML supports both SOP and monolithic approaches. Markdown currently doesn’t support inline styling in any way other than embedding HTML.
I think I’ve rambled on too long about something that may not be that important!