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11 — RhoeMarkdown Core Block and Inline Syntax

Status

  • Normative baseline
  • Version: 0.9.0
  • Layer: Part 1 / Author Surfaces

1. Purpose

This chapter records the core rhoemd block and inline conventions that remain shared across carriers.

2. Core Block Families

  • Markdown paragraph, list, blockquote, and heading forms remain valid prose hosts.
  • Directive containers introduced by ::: are the canonical typed container family.
  • Semantic fenced blocks introduced by !!! remain available for semantic block families.
  • Fenced code blocks remain valid literal blocks.
  • Tables remain valid authoring syntax and lower into canonical table structures or carrier-native nodes as appropriate.

3. Inline Forms

  • Emphasis, strong emphasis, links, code spans, and inline images remain valid inline authoring constructs.
  • Inline compatibility and transform behavior does not change the canonical AST doctrine.
  • Inline surface sugar is valid only when it lowers deterministically.

4. Attribute Lists

  • Directives MAY carry attribute lists in braces.
  • Attributes are normalized into canonical camelCase field names or carrier-specific payloads.
  • Boolean flags are presence-based.
  • Quoted values are required for values containing whitespace.

5. Typed Container Doctrine

  • ::: is the canonical typed container and directive family in 0.9.0.
  • It is used for:
  • matter directives
  • universal structure directives
  • carrier-native directives
  • visual and layout blocks
  • notation-island hosts when explicitly permitted
  • This doctrine supersedes the older idea that ::: was mainly a visual family while slide syntax lived elsewhere.

6. Fence-Length Nesting Rule

  • A directive fence consists of three or more consecutive colons.
  • The closing fence MUST match the opening fence length exactly.
  • A nested directive MUST use a strictly longer fence than the directive that contains it.
  • Canonical examples in this baseline follow that rule.
  • Parsers MAY accept weaker legacy nesting patterns in compatibility mode, but writers MUST emit valid fence-length nesting.

7. Headings

  • Ordinary Markdown headings MAY appear inside carrier-native content.
  • Headings alone do not create universal section nodes in canonical source.
  • Canonical structural authoring uses :::section, :::subsection, and :::subsubsection, or carrier-native structural directives that lower to those nodes.
  • Compatibility importers MAY recover structural section nodes from heading hierarchies during guided migration.