Tracking: 2026-07 language-strategy survey — sequenced plan (niche-but-general)

[InauguralPhysicist]

Umbrella for the 2026-07-04 survey (8 top-language profiles, repo ground-truth, 7 dimension gap analyses, adversarial critic). Governing principle from every incumbent's history: never trade the runtime guarantee for generality — generalize at the DX surface, and route every new capability through the tape so generalizing deepens the niche. The ordering below IS the strategy; volume without ordering was the critic's top process finding.

Now — days-class, independently shippable, any order

• REPL: line editing, history, and observer-native display (port the EigenOS editor) #392 REPL line editing/history (port the EigenOS editor) — kills the ^[[A first-five-minutes failure
• CI gate: every builtin and public stdlib function must be documented (regex_* currently appear nowhere) #393 stdlib discoverability CI gate (regex_* documented nowhere today)
• --test --trace-on-fail: every failing test prints its EIGS_REPLAY invocation #394 --test --trace-on-fail — every failure prints its replay invocation
• lib/contract.eigs — trajectory contracts: expect_converging, invariant_stable, expect_monotone #395 lib/contract.eigs trajectory contracts (deliberately collides with report-of resolves names differently from the observer predicates across function scope #383)
• Lint: fence the two load-bearing traps — W015 outer-mutation-without-local, W016 bare-predicate aliasing #396 lint fences W015/W016 for the two load-bearing traps
• make lib + two-file amalgamation: ship the embeddable artifact #397 make lib + two-file amalgamation
• bench/: replay-pinned n=5 benchmark harness, regression-gated in CI, published as docs/PERFORMANCE.md #398 bench/ replay-pinned perf harness + docs/PERFORMANCE.md
• --lint severity control: --lint-level, inline suppression, per-file allow in eigs.json #399 --lint severity control (consumer-CI unblock; contributor on-ramp)
• First-run tooling unification: install.sh builds eigenlsp; collapse the drifted editor/vscode vs editors/vscode trees #400 install.sh builds eigenlsp + collapse the vscode tree drift
• docs/CONCURRENCY.md — executable memory-model contract + a TSan CI job #401 docs/CONCURRENCY.md executable contract + TSan CI job
• COMPARISON.md: convergence loops — teach observer semantics as boilerplate deletion #402 COMPARISON.md convergence-loops (observer as boilerplate deletion)
• AI-legibility: single-file language reference + document the generation-validation ladder #403 AI-legibility: llms.txt-style reference + validation-ladder docs

Next — weeks-class, dependency-ordered

• Lint/LSP: scope-aware name-resolution pass — E-class 'no binding on any path' #404 scope-aware name-resolution lint (E-class), shared with LSP — highest correctness yield per week
• Language change: a bare literal list after 'of' is ALWAYS an argument list (kill the 1-element spread trap) #405 spread-trap language change (of [x] always an arg list) — pre-1.0 is the only cheap moment; closes Argument-spreading contract vs implementation: single-element literal lists don't spread, and default params amplify the surprise #153
• Structured runtime errors: catch binds {kind, message, line} with a closed kind set #406 structured runtime errors {kind, message, line} — honest weeks, the cascade is the cost
• Runtime-error carets + token-precise LSP ranges (residual of #407) #407 column/caret diagnostics — unlocks token-precise squiggles for Lint/LSP: scope-aware name-resolution pass — E-class 'no binding on any path' #404 and ranges for eigsdap v1: a CLI tape-stepper (step forward/back, bindings + trajectories); DAP/VS Code only after locals ride the tape #418
• Design: trace-tape format versioning — the tape is becoming a persisted artifact #411 tape-format versioning DECISION — blocks anything that ships a tape (--test --trace-on-fail: every failing test prints its EIGS_REPLAY invocation #394 archiving, --bundle: single-file distribution (script + eigs_modules appended to the runtime binary; optional attached tape) #413 tape variant, Design: script-to-C FFI, tape-first (ext_ffi + sqlite3 as the forcing binding) — blocked until a consumer forces it #415, eigsdap v1: a CLI tape-stepper (step forward/back, bindings + trajectories); DAP/VS Code only after locals ride the tape #418 persisted workflows)
• Deterministic cooperative task layer that rides the trace tape (task_spawn / task_send / task_recv / task_yield) #408 deterministic cooperative task layer on the tape — the strategic headline; closes the proc_* builtins are invisible to trace/replay — EIGS_REPLAY re-runs live subprocess side effects #148 contradiction
• lib/supervise.eigs — observer-native supervision: predictive, not crash-reactive (blocked on the task layer) #409 lib/supervise.eigs observer supervision — days, but ONLY after Deterministic cooperative task layer that rides the trace tape (task_spawn / task_send / task_recv / task_yield) #408
• Observer surface coherence: implement or remove 'how'; decide |x|=1.0; fold in #383 #412 observer surface coherence (how, |x|=1.0, report-of resolves names differently from the observer predicates across function scope #383)
• JIT: poll the abort flag at loop back-edges (hard timeouts without EIGS_JIT_OFF) #410 JIT back-edge abort poll
• eigsdap v1: a CLI tape-stepper (step forward/back, bindings + trajectories); DAP/VS Code only after locals ride the tape #418 eigsdap v1 as a CLI tape-stepper (DAP/VS Code deferred until locals ride the tape)
• --bundle: single-file distribution (script + eigs_modules appended to the runtime binary; optional attached tape) #413 --bundle single-file distribution (tape variant after Design: trace-tape format versioning — the tape is becoming a persisted artifact #411)
• ext_net: raw TCP/UDP sockets as tape-recorded nondeterministic inputs #414 ext_net sockets on the tape (liferaft as forcing function)

Design decisions — cheap to decide, expensive to defer

• Design: trace-tape format versioning — the tape is becoming a persisted artifact #411 tape versioning (also listed above; it is both)
• Design: Unicode/text position — pick and document a deliberate stance pre-1.0 #416 Unicode/text position (bytes-forever + lib/utf8.eigs is the likely call — make it official)
• Design: numeric tower position — f64-only exactness ends at 2^53; settle the bigint/decimal question #417 numeric tower position (document the f64 + bit_* int64 contract; bigint only when a consumer forces)

Sibling repo (ouroboros — the native-perf path)

• InauguralSystems/ouroboros#64 close the F-OURO-23 AOT envelope via lib/checksum.eigs
• InauguralSystems/ouroboros#65 spec_audit: replayable profile-guided specialization audit

Blocked / deliberately NOT doing (the critic's vetoes — do not re-propose without new facts)

• Design: script-to-C FFI, tape-first (ext_ffi + sqlite3 as the forcing binding) — blocked until a consumer forces it #415 FFI: design accepted, implementation blocked until a consumer forces it (untraced FFI would be worse than none)
• Vendored crypto extension (ext_crypto/AEAD): security liability for zero consumers; defer until a consumer needs AEAD
• --pkg audit / behavioral lockfiles: norm-setting for an ecosystem of one package; also gated on Design: trace-tape format versioning — the tape is becoming a persisted artifact #411
• Package registry + version solver: the SHA-pinned awesome-list model is structurally sounder at this scale
• Gradual/static type system: months buying a worse TypeScript; Lint/LSP: scope-aware name-resolution pass — E-class 'no binding on any path' #404 + lib/contract.eigs — trajectory contracts: expect_converging, invariant_stable, expect_monotone #395 are the correctness answer
• JIT grinding (tracing tier, ARM64/Windows JIT port, thread-safe JIT): native perf routes through AOT; MT gets the task tier
• Windows Tier 1 stays a roadmap item, not an issue — roadmap-sanctioned but no consumer forces it yet

ROADMAP.md updated to mirror this plan.

[InauguralPhysicist]

Post-triage state sync (2026-07-06), verified against main:

Now tier — everything is done except #392 (REPL line editing). #393/#394/#395/#396/#397/#398/#400/#401/#402/#403 all landed in the 2026-07-05 sprint; #399's core landed in #428 and is closed, with the eigs.json per-file allow residual split to #455.

Next tier — #411 landed in #453 (implemented: V headers + refuse-on-mismatch, docs/TRACE.md) and is closed. That unblocks the tape-shipping line: #408 (task layer), #413 (--bundle tape variant), #414, #418. #407's first increment (parse errors carry line:col) landed in #438 — remaining scope is warning spans, runtime-error columns, caret rendering. #412 can strike its #383 sub-item (observer_slots.verdict() landed in #437; the doubted divergence did not reproduce).

Design decisions — #416 and #417 both landed (#436, #434) and are closed.

Off-plan correctness batch — the four good-first-issue silent-wrong-answer bugs (#312/#314/#316/#317) are fixed in PR #454 (triage ruling: correctness-before-performance outranks the feature ordering for known wrong answers; days-class artifact).

Housekeeping when convenient: tick #394/#397/#398/#399/#400/#401/#402/#403/#411 in the checklist above, and ROADMAP.md still shows #411 unchecked (checkbox drift isn't caught by the drift gate). Front of queue per the plan: #404, then #405/#406; #408 is now design-note-ready.

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Generated by Claude Code

[InauguralPhysicist]

Post-release state sync (2026-07-06, after the v0.27.0 cut):

Done since the last sync: #392 (REPL line editor), #404 increment one (E003 undefined-name), #405 (one call rule — fully executed; the ouroboros frontend parity leg landed at the v0.27.0 pin bump, issue closed), #411 (tape format versioning — decided + shipped; the tape-shipping train #408/#413/#414/#418 is now unblocked). ROADMAP.md header + checkboxes synced on main (6f09097).

Front of queue: two post-release reports took precedence under the correctness-before-features ruling — #459 (silent hijack of a user-rebound dispatch; fix in PR #462, which also decides report/report_value/observe as observer special forms and derives W012/W013 from the registry) and #460 (~380 E003 cross-module false positives, the ergonomics half of #404's next increment, overlapping #455's per-file allow-list). Then the sequenced order resumes: #404 remainder → #406 → #408 (design-note-ready).

[InauguralPhysicist]

Batch sync (2026-07-07, overnight session): landed on main — #459 (dispatch-hijack fix + observer special forms decided + registry-derived W012/W013, PR #462), #460 (# lint: loaded-by fragment directive, PR #463, headers rolled out to 6 consumers same day: 415 fragment E003s → 0), #410 (JIT back-edge abort poll, PR #464 — root-caused narrower than filed: only from-zero thunks had the gap), #412 (unity horizon + real how gradient, PR #465 — observer corpus goldens regenerated, 4 divergences each traced to the decided changes), #407 increment 2 (parse-error carets, PR #466). ouroboros: #67 closed (uu_-prefix keyword mangling), #69/#70 filed from test-writing. Bump-time ledger (all recorded in the ops notes): W012/W013 new true positives possible in consumers; #412 classification shifts for anything settling on exactly ±1.0 (dynamics especially); ouroboros aot_rt mirrors the how formula at the bump; Tidepool converts allow-file → loaded-by at the bump. Queue after this batch: #406 (structured errors — deliberately NOT rushed: its EM-corpus + 10-consumer catch-audit tail wants an unhurried session), #404 remainder, then the unblocked tape train (#408 design note → #413/#414/#418).

[InauguralPhysicist]

Queue sync (2026-07-07, day session): #406 CLOSED (PR #468) — structured runtime errors landed whole, not incremented: catch binds {kind, message, line}, 11-kind closed vocabulary (no arity — calls pad by design), 173 raise sites classified through the rt_error rename, uncaught stderr byte-unchanged (EM corpus survived; EM26–EM30 added), suite 2603/2603 release+ASan, all 17 CI checks. The pre-landing consumer audit found zero breaking catch sites; the bump ledger (ouroboros frontend dict-binding parity, Tidepool cosmetic print, sandbox_run/embed adoption opportunities) is recorded in hq. Follow-up #469 filed (kind-typo lint). Warm-up: #467 closed doc-only.

Queue now: #404 remainder (scope-aware E-class 'no binding on any path'), then the unblocked tape train (#408 design note → #413/#414/#418).

[InauguralPhysicist]

Queue sync: #408 design note posted (the tape train opens). Headline claims: (1) a fixed-policy cooperative scheduler on one thread is deterministic BY CONSTRUCTION — zero new tape record kinds for increments 1–2, no #411 bump; the #148 recv-wall is lifted for tasks rather than worked around; (2) g_vm_multithreaded never flips so the JIT stays on (the #297 cliff fix); (3) requirements taken from the EigenOS and liferaft reinventions before design (mid-computation yield is EigenOS's fatal gap; liferaft proves empty-tape byte-identical replay). Five increments sketched; top risk flagged = arena lifetime across suspension (memory-design pass before coding). Four open decisions on the issue need a ruling before increment 1 — #1 (isolation model) diverges from the issue text and changes the architecture.