[eviks]

"Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge, without recourse to conscious reasoning or needing an explanation" per wiki The convention is the precise rule that _ is italics, so no, you aquire no knowledge, you need to already possess that knowledge and remember that precise rule.

On the other hand, if you know that _ is __underline__, - is --strikethrough--, then you can acquire knowledge (guess) that / is /italics/ because the principle is the same - formatting text follows symbol's shape (though it's not a perfect mach since / transforms text, not adds new symbols unlike _ or - ). But that's still intuition (* for bold would not fit here)

The other bad analogies don't help resolve it, so best stick to the topic

[mst]

From my point of view, you acquire the knowledge that this system also follows the convention by guessing that it does and trying it (though I was quoting a dictionary rather than a wiki; I usually do for word definitions).

I appreciate that you don't find the analogies convincing, but they do express how I (and many others) see the situation, and declaring it a failure to stick to the topic because it doesn't fit how -you- see things is unconstructive at best.