Points

A Point is content you identify for independent discussion. It can be a question, sentence, fragment or passage. Use a mark to say how you are presenting it here:

A role describes this presentation, rather than a permanent type or a judgment of truth. The same content can be a Claim in one discussion and a Ground in another. A response may also answer or clarify something; its mark need not catalogue everything the passage does.

Keep the complete content

- [C] The method may work
  under the same calibration conditions.
  - [G] Both runs used the same temperature.

The Claim includes its continuation line. Keep qualifications in the content even when Map shortens the display. A Point need not be a complete declarative sentence, and a new line does not turn its continuation into a note.

Ordinary context can stay unmarked. It remains in Reading without becoming another Point.

Questions do not prescribe their children

- [Q @scale] How fast is "fast" here?
  - [.] Seconds, rather than minutes.
  - [C] The record does not describe the measurement method.

All three are complete Points. The nesting organizes the discussion without automatically recording an answer or relevance relation. A neutral Point leaves its role unspecified; it need not be impartial or unfinished.

When you want to record an answer explicitly:

- [Q @scale] How fast is "fast" here?
  - [. answers @scale] Seconds, rather than minutes.

[R] beneath the Question instead records a response. Neither a response nor an answer relation certifies that the question is resolved. See connections from indentation for the other local relations.

Name a Point for later reference

- [C @claim] The current explanation is incomplete.
  - [G] It does not account for the second observation.
- [O -> @claim] That observation may be a measurement error.

@claim names the Claim. The anonymous Ground and Objection remain full Points. Names use lowercase letters, digits, hyphens or underscores, beginning with a letter. Keep a name when later references should continue to identify the same content.

Reuse without copying

- [C @observation] Two retries timed out.
- [C @cause] A shared configuration fault may explain the failures.
  - [G use @observation] Consider these retries in this step.

use presents the existing Point as a Ground here. Its content and original declaration remain shared; this appearance adds its own supporting connection. The words after the use are commentary at this appearance, rather than a replacement for “Two retries timed out.”

Use [. use @observation] to present the same Point without a default connection. It does not copy the Point’s children or notes. If you change what the claim says, declare a new Point instead.

Keep supplementary prose in a note

- [C] The measurements can be compared.
  - [G] Both runs used the same calibration procedure.
  - [note] Source: laboratory record, section 2.
    - Check the archived worksheet before revising.

A note and its whole indented subtree remain supplementary prose. They add no Points or connections, even if a quoted line looks like an annotation. Keep a qualification that changes the Claim in its content; give a separate reason its own Point.

For alias spellings, object notes and precise reference boundaries, consult the syntax reference. The English / 繁體中文 glossary gives suggested Chinese readings.