I've felt the same restrictions, at first I built a version of my site using pollen; that had its issues, so I rewrote it into haskell (with an xml post format)
My main rationale for using XML for this is that
1. It was designed for it. (extensible markup!)
2. It has built-in considerations for things that could otherwise cause a more naive approach to have problems (for example, CDATA tag)
3. Other interesting features for this specific use case.
I don't love it, but it works OK. I might end up making a little less-verbose DSL which makes writing it a bit nicer, but actually converts to XML on a pass-through.
Anyway, shoot me an email if you want to compare notes on the topic. It seems like so many people are happy with markdown as an authoring format that its rare to meet people who see the problems.
My main rationale for using XML for this is that
1. It was designed for it. (extensible markup!) 2. It has built-in considerations for things that could otherwise cause a more naive approach to have problems (for example, CDATA tag) 3. Other interesting features for this specific use case.
I don't love it, but it works OK. I might end up making a little less-verbose DSL which makes writing it a bit nicer, but actually converts to XML on a pass-through.
Anyway, shoot me an email if you want to compare notes on the topic. It seems like so many people are happy with markdown as an authoring format that its rare to meet people who see the problems.