A DOM-based solution makes sense, but I doubt that the current minimizeInlineTags helps much as it will only re-shuffle inline tags starting at the same text / content offset. This is not sufficient in cases like the example in bug 42803.

Fortunately, selective serialization mostly hides this issue for most untouched content as the break-up is deterministic. The visual editor tries to give priority to links, so in new content this should also not be an issue.

Somewhat related, but harder to 'fix': bug 47963

[Parsoid component reorg by merging JS/General and General. See bug 50685 for more information. Filter bugmail on this comment. parsoidreorg20130704]

Another test case reported by jackmcbarn:

''<table><tr><td>'''foo'''</td></tr></table>'''

Parsoid reproduces what the legacy parser does. So, this is a feature request to clean up that behavior.