HTML from Array of strings

simple-html.js

/* 
* utility variables for escaping HTML
*/
// escapeMap, borrowed from underscore.js
var escapeMap = {
	'&': '&',
	'<': '&lt;',
	'>': '&gt;',
	'"': '&quot;',
	"'": '&#x27;',
	'`': '&#x60;'
};

var escapeRegex = new RegExp(Object.keys(escapeMap).join('|'), 'g');

/**
* Maps left-hand special characters with 
* HTML encoded strings
*
* @param String match
* @return String
*/
function escapeFun (match) {
	return escapeMap[match];
}

/**
* Creates a string of HTML from an array of strings
* optionally nested with more arrays of strings. 
* Also makes childless tags self-closing
* 
* ex: 
* ['br'] => '<br/>'
* ['h1', 'Text'] => '<h1>Text</h1>'
* ['a', ['b', 'More'], ' Text'] => 
* 		'<a><b>More</b> Text</a>'
* ['p', '<b>Text</b>'] => '<p>&lt;b&gt;Text&lt;/b&gt;</p>'
*
* @param Array 		_arr
* @return String  	HTML 
*/
function SimpleHTML (_arr) {
	var arr = _arr || [],
		tagName = arr[0],
		len = arr.length,
		output = '';

	// no input
	if (!tagName) {
		// could throw new Error
		return '';
	}

	output = '<' + tagName;

	// single input
	if (len === 1) {
		return output + '/>';
	}

	output += '>';

	// for loop starts at second input (i = 1)
	for (var i = 1; i < len; i++) {
		var item = arr[i];
		if (typeof(item) === 'string') {
			// append strings as plaintext
			output += item.replace(escapeRegex, escapeFun);
		} else if (item instanceof Array) {
			// recursively call this function for arrays
			output += SimpleHTML(item);
		}
	}

	// add the closing tag
	output += '</' + tagName + '>';

	return output;
}