GUIDE 3 — NESTING + CLOSERS

the 10 closers

every closer is ; + 1 character. one job each. zero ambiguity.

closer	name	closes	example
`;.`	inline	headings, bold, italic, links, items	`;^ bold ;.`
`;\|`	block	div, nav, form, section	`;\d. content ;\|`
`;"`	attribute	class, id, style, generic	`;?:box;"`
`;z`	raw zone	svg, mathml, passthrough	`;\r9 ... ;z`
`;x`	table cell	cells opened by `;[`	`;[ data ;x`
`;c`	contained	inner inline (nested formatting)	`;^ bold ;% italic ;c ;.`
`;v`	void	elements with no content	`;\i5 ;v`
`;b`	branch	parent list with children	`;- parent ... ;b`
`;,`	sequence	datapod items, attr values	`;:a: item ;,`
`;>`	key-value	datapod keys, attr keys	`;:k: name ;>`

the 5 bottom-row keyboard closers: z x c v b — ergonomic and memorable.

leaf vs branch

;. = leaf (no children). ;b = branch (has children).

;- leaf item ;.              no children — ;. closes
;- branch item               has children — ;b closes
  ;- child one ;.
  ;- child two ;.
;b

rendered:

leaf item
branch item
- child one
- child two

indentation is cosmetic — for readability. the parser follows closers, not whitespace.

contained inline (;c)

when nesting inline operators, use ;c to close the inner one:

;^ bold with ;% italic ;c still bold ;.

renders: bold with italic still bold

;c means "close the inner thing, not the outer thing."

deeper nesting

;c chains to any depth. each ;c pops one level inward.

;^ bold ;% italic ;` code ;c still italic ;c still bold ;.

parser stack:

;^ push BOLD
;% push ITALIC
;` push CODE
;c pop CODE
;c pop ITALIC
;. pop BOLD

when you need it

only when nesting. if not nesting, ;. works fine:

;^ just bold ;.         no nesting — ;. is fine
;^ bold ;% italic ;c ;.  nesting — inner needs ;c

why only ;. needs ;c

;. is shared across many operator types — bold, italic, code, links, items, headings, spans.
when two of them nest, the parser cannot tell which ;. belongs to which.
;c solves this.

the other closers do not need a chain equivalent:

;| — block containers only. each ;| pops the nearest open block.
;b — branch lists only. stack-based.
;x — table cells. cells cannot nest.
;z — raw zones. no parsing inside.
;v — void elements. no content.
;" — attributes. do not nest.
;, and ;> — each serves one role. stack handles it.

block containers (;|)

;| closes block-level containers:

;\d. content goes here ;|           div
;\n. nav links here ;|              nav
;\f1 form fields here ;|            form
;\s1 section content ;|             section

block containers can nest — each ;| pops the nearest open block:

;\d.
  ;\d.
    inner content
  ;|
  outer content
;|

raw zones (;z)

;\r9 opens a raw block. ;z closes it.
content passes through untouched — for svg, mathml, or any literal html.

;\r9
<svg viewBox="0 0 100 100">
  <circle cx="50" cy="50" r="40"/>
</svg>
;z

escape: if content has a lone ;z line, write ;;z to prevent early close.

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