!Tilde "~"
Advantages:
* Used on:
** JSPWiki
* Has semantic connotation wit "not", which might suggest the meaning when seen
* Pretty rare in normal text (but not unused)
Disadvantages:
* Not available on many [Keyboards]
* Hard to type under Microsoft Windows (Could you be more precise?  I have no trouble typing it using MS Windows with a US or German keyboard)
* Traditionally used in text as an alternative to hyphen (eg. in number ranges) or meaning "roughly".
* The exact way of escaping is not obvous (eg. compare {{{~ ~}}}}}} vs {{{~ }~ }~ }}}})
* Used in programming languages for operators -- pasted code would need escaping, or could change its meaning.
* Conflicts:
** Confluence for user link,
** Netcipia, SnipSnap, XWiki for italics,
** GeboGebo for monospace,
** TracWiki, MoniWiki for strike,
** Confluence, FlexWiki, Instiki, TiddlyWiki, VQWiki for subscript,
** WikkaWiki for bullet list.
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!Backslash "\"
Advantages:
* Extremely widespread for escaping in:
** Programming languages
** File names
** Regular expressions and search queries
* Traditional, obvious way of use (always escapes a single character)
* Never used in normal text
Disadvantages:
* Used in Microsoft Windows for paths
* Commonly used for forced line break (usually doubled)
* Used in programming languages for escaping -- pasted code would need double escaping, or could look bad.
* A bit confusing considering the double backslash proposed in Creole 0.4.
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!Caret "^"
Advantages:
* Never used in normal text
* Rarely used even in programming languages
* Sometimes used to mean "not"
Disadvantages:
* Not on all [Keyboards]
* No precedent (?)
* Conflicts with superscript markup on all wikis that have it
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!Percent "%"
Advantages:
* Commonly used for an alternate escape character, when backslash is not available
** for printf parameters
** for time and date formatting
** for colored text
* Established way of using (escapes whole chunks)
Disadvantages:
* Sometimes used in normal text to denote, uh, percents
* Used in programming languages for operators, escaping and variable marks -- code needs escaping or it will change meaning
* Conflicts:
** TODO

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