The closing delimiter of a div block can interrupt a paragraph

[rauschma]

Markdown:

::: note
line
:::

HTML:

<div class="note">
<p>line</p>
</div>

Playground

Doesn’t this conflict with the rule “Block-level elements can't interrupt paragraphs”?

[jgm]

Not really; this isn't a new block-level element, it's just the end of one that had already been started.

[rauschma]

OK. I’m torn:

• Div blocks look nice this way.
• The usability argument for paragraphs doesn’t change if it’s a closing block delimiter (vs. an opening block delimiter).

[jgm]

Philosophically, I would almost prefer not to have any fenced constructs for this reason.

A side-marked div construct (like blockquotes, but with :) has several advantages: (a) it is local (you don't need to look potentially far back in the file to see if you're in a div), (b) nesting is completely clear, (c) it doesn't have this problem with the end fence, (d) it is more consistent, since the other block containers are non-fenced (block quotes, list items).

When I've brought this up, though, in commonmark and pandoc forums, people have consistently preferred fenced syntax. I'm still not convinced, though. This could be brought up separately on the discussion list.

[rauschma]

Interesting!

Visually, it helps that closing delimiters have to match the colon counts of opening delimiters:

::::::

Outer

:::
Inner
:::
::::::

If others are interested – this is the discussion: “Side-marked instead of fenced divs?”