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All 176 files in the four accumulating directories now use a zero-padded 4-digit counter prefix that reflects creation order (`NNNN-slug.md`). The counter is assigned per directory in strict git-log creation order; ties broken alphabetically by original name. The old `YYYY-MM-DD-` prefix on docs/specs/ and docs/plans/ files is dropped — the date is recoverable from git log and the counter carries the ordering. A file's counter is stable for the life of the file: never reassigned, never reused, never compacted. Deleted files retire their counter; subsequent files do not fill the gap. This is the property that lets cross-references stay literal — refs use the full filename including the counter (`design/contracts/0007-honesty-rule.md`) so they grep cleanly and resolve directly without a glob step. 313 cross-references updated across .md/.rs/.toml/.c/.json files (test pins, include_str! paths, design-INDEX entries, baseline notes, runtime C comments, inter-contract markdown links incl. bare basename and `../models/foo.md` forms). CLAUDE.md gets a new "File-naming convention" section spelling out the rule and rationale. skills/brainstorm/SKILL.md and skills/planner/SKILL.md updated so new spec/plan creation produces counter-prefixed names from the start. The full test suite (cargo test --workspace) passes.
91 lines
4.3 KiB
Markdown
91 lines
4.3 KiB
Markdown
# Form (B) — prose projection whitepaper
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## Form (B) — human prose projection
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AILang ships a
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second textual projection of the AST: `ailang-prose`, a one-way
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projection from `Module → human-readable text`. It is **not** an
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authoring surface; it is the "display" projection that the
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[authoring surface](../contracts/0001-authoring-surface.md)'s
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architectural pin explicitly anticipated:
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> *"Future projections are explicitly anticipated: a visual /
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> graphical front-end is a plausible second projection for human
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> review and inspection (display being the one case where non-AI
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> eyes matter). The architecture leaves room: any producer of
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> well-formed `ailang-core::ast::Module` values is a valid
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> front-end."*
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Form (B) targets the specific failure mode where a human reviewer
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needs to read an AILang module quickly. Form (A) was designed to
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fit a 30-production EBNF spec and to be parsed zero-shot by foreign
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LLMs; that prioritisation makes it dense and visually noisy for
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human readers. Form (B) inverts the trade-offs:
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- **Rust-flavoured surface.** Braces and `=>` for match arms,
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Rust-aligned 4-level operator precedence, infix arithmetic
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(`a + b`, not `+(a, b)`), unary `!` for `not`.
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- **Lossy by design.** Projection elides machinery the LLM can
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re-derive: `(con T)` wrappers (`(con Int)` → `Int`), the
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`(fn-type (params ...) (ret ...))` wrap, `(term-ctor T C ...)`
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collapses to `C(...)`, redundant parens. Only the AST machinery
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whose information is recoverable from typecheck context.
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- **Lossless on load-bearing detail.** Mode annotations
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(`own T`, `borrow T`), effects (`with IO`), explicit `clone`,
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`reuse-as`, doc strings, type annotations on signatures and
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lambdas, the `tail` flag — all preserved verbatim.
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Critically, **form (B) has no parser**. Form (A) is round-trippable
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by construction (see [roundtrip invariant](../contracts/0009-roundtrip-invariant.md));
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form (B) deliberately is not. Re-integrating prose edits requires an
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external LLM mediator, not a compiler pass — the prompt template
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`ail merge-prose` composes the six-step cycle.
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Form (B) does not weaken any
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[authoring surface](../contracts/0001-authoring-surface.md) invariant:
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- The [JSON-AST](../contracts/0002-data-model.md) remains the only
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hashable artefact. Prose is not hashed, not content-addressed,
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not load-bearing for any cross-module reference.
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- Form (A) remains the canonical authoring surface. Foreign LLMs
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still author against form (A); humans review and edit through
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form (B).
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- The 30-production grammar of form (A) is unchanged.
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- `ailang-check` and `ailang-codegen` remain projection-agnostic;
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`ailang-prose` is a downstream consumer of `ailang-core::ast`,
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parallel to `ailang-surface` but in the rendering direction only.
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The CLI gains `ail prose <m.ail.json>` (the deterministic
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projection) and `ail merge-prose <m.ail.json> <edited.prose.txt>`
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(the mediator-prompt composer); both are listed under
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[pipeline](0003-pipeline.md).
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## Form-A spec embedding
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An earlier `merge-prose`
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prompt instructed the LLM to emit JSON-AST and offered a 12-line
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schema-essentials reminder; that combination did not give a
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foreign LLM enough to produce valid output. The current prompt revises this:
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- The LLM emits **Form-A** (the canonical authoring surface), not
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JSON. JSON-AST stays the only hashable artefact, but it is not
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a writing surface. The user runs `ail parse foo.new.ail`
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before `ail check` to produce the canonical JSON.
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- `crates/ailang-core/specs/form_a.md` is the complete LLM-targeted
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Form-A specification — grammar, every term / pattern / type /
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def keyword, schema invariants, pitfall catalogue, four
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few-shot modules drawn from `examples/*.ail`. It is exported
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as `ailang_core::FORM_A_SPEC` and embedded verbatim in every
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`merge-prose` prompt.
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- `crates/ailang-core/tests/spec_drift.rs` walks every variant of
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`Term`, `Pattern`, `Type`, `Def`, `Literal` via exhaustive
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`match` and asserts an anchor for each appears in the spec.
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The exhaustive match is the load-bearing piece: adding a new
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variant without updating the match fails compilation in this
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test, before its assertions even run. Hand-written content,
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mechanical drift detection.
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The cycle's lowest-common-denominator path is the static prompt
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(`ail merge-prose | client | ail parse | ail check`), which works
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with any client.
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