some cleanup (dart-lang/markdown#489)

diff --git a/pkgs/markdown/lib/src/inline_parser.dart b/pkgs/markdown/lib/src/inline_parser.dart
index d69af2b..27ab695 100644
--- a/pkgs/markdown/lib/src/inline_parser.dart
+++ b/pkgs/markdown/lib/src/inline_parser.dart

@@ -28,10 +28,6 @@
     EmailAutolinkSyntax(),
     AutolinkSyntax(),
     LineBreakSyntax(),
-    // "*" surrounded by spaces is left alone.
-    TextSyntax(r' \* ', startCharacter: $space),
-    // "_" surrounded by spaces is left alone.
-    TextSyntax(' _ ', startCharacter: $space),
     // Parse "**strong**" and "*emphasis*" tags.
     EmphasisSyntax.asterisk(),
     // Parse "__strong__" and "_emphasis_" tags.
@@ -41,20 +37,13 @@
     // We will add the LinkSyntax once we know about the specific link resolver.
   ]);
 
-  static final List<InlineSyntax> _htmlSyntaxes =
-      List<InlineSyntax>.unmodifiable(<InlineSyntax>[
-    // Leave already-encoded HTML entities alone. Ensures we don't turn
-    // "&amp;" into "&amp;amp;"
-    TextSyntax('&[#a-zA-Z0-9]*;', startCharacter: $ampersand),
-  ]);
-
   /// The string of Markdown being parsed.
   final String source;
 
   /// The Markdown document this parser is parsing.
   final Document document;
 
-  final List<InlineSyntax> syntaxes = <InlineSyntax>[];
+  final syntaxes = <InlineSyntax>[];
 
   /// The current read position.
   int pos = 0;
@@ -98,11 +87,12 @@
     }
 
     if (encodeHtml) {
-      syntaxes.add(EscapeHtmlSyntax());
-    }
-
-    if (encodeHtml) {
-      syntaxes.addAll(_htmlSyntaxes);
+      syntaxes.addAll([
+        EscapeHtmlSyntax(),
+        // Leave already-encoded HTML entities alone. Ensures we don't turn
+        // "&amp;" into "&amp;amp;"
+        TextSyntax('&[#a-zA-Z0-9]*;', startCharacter: $ampersand),
+      ]);
     }
   }
 

diff --git a/pkgs/markdown/lib/src/inline_syntaxes/escape_syntax.dart b/pkgs/markdown/lib/src/inline_syntaxes/escape_syntax.dart
index 30e6ea4..c112d93 100644
--- a/pkgs/markdown/lib/src/inline_syntaxes/escape_syntax.dart
+++ b/pkgs/markdown/lib/src/inline_syntaxes/escape_syntax.dart

@@ -21,13 +21,14 @@
   bool onMatch(InlineParser parser, Match match) {
     final chars = match.match;
 
+    String text;
     if ('&"<>'.contains(match[1]!) && parser.encodeHtml) {
-      final text = escapeHtml(match[1]!);
-      parser.addNode(Text(text));
-      return true;
+      text = escapeHtml(match[1]!);
     } else {
-      parser.addNode(Text(chars[1]));
-      return true;
+      text = chars[1];
     }
+
+    parser.addNode(Text(text));
+    return true;
   }
 }