2 SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2024, 2025 Lady <https://www.ladys.computer/about/#lady>
3 SPDX-License-Identifier: CC0-1.0
7 <b>Ladys simple markup language.</b>
9 💄📝 Les·M·L is a document markup language designed with two goals in
12 1. It must be trivial to parse, even with limited tooling such as that
15 2. It must be sophisticated enough to handle longform hypertext
16 documents and associated metadata.
18 It is implemented as an X·S·L·T transformation from a
19 `<html:script type="text/lesml">` element into H·T·M·L
24 <i>Les·M·L</i> is an abbreviation of the phrase “Ladys Extremely Simple
29 The first line of any 💄📝 Les·M·L document should be the string
31 A language tag may follow this, beginning with `@` and terminated with
34 Regardless of whether a language tag is present, the shebang line may
35 be terminated by a space‐separated list of properties of the form
37 Only one property is currently permitted: `profile`, whose value should
38 be a U·R·I and is translated to the `@data-lesml-profile` attribute
39 on the resulting `<html:article>` element.
41 Following the shebang line, document metadata may be provided in the
42 [Record Jar][draft-phillips-record-jar-01] format.
43 The body of the document begins after the last line which begins with
44 the string `%%`, or after the shebang line if none exists.
46 Multiple documents can be catenated into a single file; a new document
47 is begun on any line which starts with `#!lesml` or `##`.
48 Documents in the later case inherit the latest preceding `#!lesml`
50 `##` may be followed by other text; this is treated as an interdocument
53 Documents are broken into paragraphs by blank lines.
54 Empty paragraphs are ignored.
56 If every line in the paragraph begins with (optional white·space
57 followed by) `»` it is quoted (`<html:blockquote>`); if every line
58 begins with `]` it is bracketed.
59 The lines, minus this leading, are then re‐analysed.
60 Bracketed paragraphs which end quotes are treated as captions
61 (`<html:figcaption>`); otherwise, they are footers (`<html:footer>`).
63 Non·empty paragraphs are classified as follows :—
65 - If the paragraph consists of only the following section‐break
66 characters, plus any amount of white·space, then it is
67 considered to be a section break (`<html:hr>`).
69 The section break characters are :—
71 | Character | Codepoint | Unicode Name |
72 | --------- | --------- | ------------ |
73 | `*` | `U+002A` | `ASTERISK` |
74 | `-` | `U+002D` | `HYPHEN-MINUS` |
75 | `.` | `U+002E` | `FULL STOP` |
76 | `=` | `U+003D` | `EQUALS SIGN` |
77 | `_` | `U+005F` | `LOW LINE` |
78 | `~` | `U+007E` | `TILDE` |
79 | `·` | `U+00B7` | `MIDDLE DOT` |
80 | `․` | `U+2024` | `ONE DOT LEADER` |
81 | `‥` | `U+2025` | `TWO DOT LEADER` |
82 | `…` | `U+2026` | `HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS` |
83 | `⁂` | `U+2042` | `ASTERISM` |
84 | `⋯` | `U+22EF` | `MIDLINE HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS` |
85 | `─` | `U+2500` | `BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT HORIZONTAL` |
86 | `━` | `U+2501` | `BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY HORIZONTAL` |
87 | `┄` | `U+2504` | `BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT TRIPLE DASH HORIZONTAL` |
88 | `┅` | `U+2505` | `BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY TRIPLE DASH HORIZONTAL` |
89 | `┈` | `U+2508` | `BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT QUADRUPLE DASH HORIZONTAL` |
90 | `┉` | `U+2509` | `BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY QUADRUPLE DASH HORIZONTAL` |
91 | `╌` | `U+254C` | `BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT DOUBLE DASH HORIZONTAL` |
92 | `╍` | `U+254D` | `BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY DOUBLE DASH HORIZONTAL` |
93 | `═` | `U+2550` | `BOX DRAWINGS DOUBLE HORIZONTAL` |
94 | `╴` | `U+2574` | `BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT LEFT` |
95 | `╶` | `U+2576` | `BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT RIGHT` |
96 | `╸` | `U+2578` | `BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY LEFT` |
97 | `╺` | `U+257A` | `BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY RIGHT` |
98 | `☙` | `U+2619` | `REVERSED ROTATED FLORAL HEART BULLET` |
99 | `❧` | `U+2767` | `ROTATED FLORAL HEART BULLET` |
100 | ` ` | `U+3000` | `IDEOGRAPHIC SPACE` |
101 | `・` | `U+30FB` | `KATAKANA MIDDLE DOT` |
102 | `*` | `U+FF0A` | `FULLWIDTH ASTERISK` |
103 | `-` | `U+FF0D` | `FULLWIDTH HYPHEN-MINUS` |
104 | `.` | `U+FF0E` | `FULLWIDTH FULL STOP` |
105 | `=` | `U+FF1D` | `FULLWIDTH EQUALS SIGN` |
106 | `_` | `U+FF3F` | `FULLWIDTH LOW LINE` |
107 | `~` | `U+FF5E` | `FULLWIDTH TILDE` |
109 - If every line in the paragraph begins with zero or more white·space
110 characters followed by `|`, it is a “preformatted” paragraph and
111 white·space is not collapsed (`<html:pre>`).
113 - Otherwise, the paragraph is ordinary.
115 After this classification, each ordinary paragraph is further
116 classified by type based on its first character (which is must be
117 followed by white·space, a pilcrow, or else the only thing on the
120 - If the paragraph is preformatted, it is an ordinary paragraph.
122 - If the paragraph begins with `⁌`, it is a chapter heading
125 - If the paragraph begins with `§`, it is a section heading
128 - If the paragraph begins with `❦`, it is a subsection heading
131 - If the paragraph begins with `✠`, it is a subsubsection heading
134 - If the paragraph begins with `•` or `🔢`, it is a primary unordered
135 or ordered list item (`<html:li class="unordered" data-level="1">`
136 or `<html:li class="ordered" data-level="1">`).
138 - If the paragraph begins with `◦` or `🔠`, it is a secondary unordered
139 or ordered list item (`<html:li class="unordered" data-level="2">`
140 or `<html:li class="ordered" data-level="2">`).
141 Secondary list items are considered to be nested inside of primary
142 list items which precede them.
144 - If the paragraph begins with `▪` or `🔡`, it is a tertiary unordered
145 or ordered list item (`<html:li class="unordered" data-level="3">`
146 or `<html:li class="ordered" data-level="3">`).
147 Tertiary list items are considered to be nested inside of primary
148 and secondary list items which precede them.
150 - If the paragraph begins with `⁃` or `🔣`, it is a quaternary
151 unordered or ordered list item
152 (`<html:li class="unordered" data-level="4">` or
153 `<html:li class="ordered" data-level="4">`).
154 Quaternary list items are considered to be nested inside of primary,
155 secondary, and tertiary list items which precede them.
157 - If the paragraph begins with `※`, it is an ordinary note
158 (`<html:div role="note" class="note">`).
160 - If the paragraph begins with `☡`, it is a cautionary note
161 (`<html:div role="note" class="caution">`).
163 - If the paragraph begins with `🛈`, it is an informative note
164 (`<html:div role="note" class="info">`).
166 - If the paragraph begins with `⯑`, it is a questioning note
167 (`<html:div role="note" class="query">`).
169 - If the paragraph begins with `⚠︎`, it is a warning note
170 (`<html:div role="note" class="warn">`).
172 - If the paragraph begins with `#`, it is a comment.
173 Comments produce X·M·L comment nodes and can be used to break up list
174 items into separate lists.
176 - If the paragraph begins with `⋯`, it is a continuation paragraph.
177 Continuation paragraphs may be used to continue a preceding div or
179 If there is no such preceding div or list item, they will attach to
180 adjacent heading elements to form heading groups (`<html:hgroup>`).
181 Otherwise, they will be treated as ordinary paragraphs.
183 - Otherwise, it is an ordinary paragraph.
185 Following this sigil (if any) there may be a `¶` followed by zero or
186 more non·white·space characters.
187 The characters following the `¶` give the identifier for the paragraph,
188 which is expected to be unique within a document.
189 This may be suffixed with a language tag beginning with `@` and
192 The remaining characters in a paragraph form its contents.
193 Markup within paragraphs is delimited with·out exception by pairs of
194 characters, with the following precedence :—
196 - The characters `⌦` and `⌫` indicate inline comments.
197 A single character `⌧` may be used to indicate an “empty” comment
198 (consisting of `U+034F COMBINING GRAPHEME JOINER` for X·M·L
201 - The characters `{@` and `"}` indicate attribute specifications.
202 The attribute specification must contain at least one `="` which
203 separates the key of the attribute from the value.
204 Attributes attach to the previous element or text node, with
205 white·space‐only text nodes after elements ignored; if there is no
206 such previous element or text node, an empty text node is used
208 Multiple attributes can be given in sequence using multiple
210 Text nodes with attributes are wrapped in `<html:span>`.
212 - The characters `{🔗` and `>}` indicate a hyperlink to a U·R·L
214 The hyperlink must contain at least one `<`; the content before the
215 last `<` gives the text of the link, and the content after gives
216 the U·R·L that the link points to.
217 If no text is given, the U·R·L will be used instead.
219 - The characters `⸠` and `⸡` indicate a strikethru (`<html:s>`).
221 - The characters `⸤` and `⸥` indicate underlining (`<html:u>`).
223 - The characters `⟦` and `⟧` indicate an inline note
224 (`<html:small role="note">`).
226 - The characters `⸨` and `⸩` indicate parenthetical content
229 - The characters `` ` `` and `´` indicate code (`<html:code>`).
231 - The characters `⟪` and `⟫` indicate titles (`<html:cite>`).
233 - The characters `⸶` and `⸷` indicate names (`<html:u class="name">`).
235 - The characters `⟨` and `⟩` indicate offset text (`<html:i>`).
237 - The characters `⦃` and `⦄` indicate keyword highlighting
240 - The characters `☞︎` and `☜︎` indicate strong importance
243 - The characters `⹐` and `⹑` indicate emphasis (`<html:em>`).
245 Once the tree is built as above, it is remediated into its final form
246 by the following steps :—
248 - Continuation paragraphs are joined with the preceding list items or
251 - List items of a higher level are nested in preceding list items, when
254 - Successive list items of the same level and class are joined into
257 - Linebreaks in preformatted paragraphs are replaced with `<html:br>`.
259 Finally, any character can be escaped by instead providing its Unicode
260 codepoint in the form `{U+NNNN}`, where `NNNN` is one or more
262 Multiple codepoints may be provided separated by periods, as in
264 Due to limitations in X·S·L·T, characters cannot be escaped in
265 attributes (including link targets).
269 💄📝 Les·M·L is designed for usage with [⛩📰 书社][Shushe].
270 Simply include the `parser.xslt` provided by this repository to
271 ⛩📰 书社 as an additional parser, and `magic` as an additional
276 This repository conforms to [REUSE][].
278 The parser is licensed under the terms of the <cite>Mozilla Public
279 License, version 2.0</cite>.
281 [REUSE]: <https://reuse.software/spec/>
282 [Shushe]: <https://git.ladys.computer/Shushe/>
283 [draft-phillips-record-jar-01]: <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-phillips-record-jar-01>