Help, self-documentation, and Document Examiner reimplementation specification

Release profiles

The UI substrate boundary is normative. HD-C46 and HD-C303 use TV and ZWEI and predate CLIM. HD-G85-ZMACS is ZWEI/Zmacs over TV. HD-G85-HELP and HD-G85-DEX are Dynamic Windows program frameworks over TV, Command Processor, and Sage. None of the selected implementation files defines a CLIM application frame, pane, port, command table, or CLIM dependency. A clean-room implementation MAY use CLIM internally only if it preserves this specification's observable behavior and does not relabel historical Dynamic Windows behavior as CLIM behavior.

Conformance levels

This document normatively closes HD-C46/L2, HD-C303/L2, HD-G85-ZMACS/L2, HD-G85-HELP/L2, and HD-G85-DEX/L2 at the semantic grain, subject to the explicit runtime oracles. It reserves L3. Source conformance and preserved-runtime closure are independent axes:

Exact source artifacts

The Genera filenames and hashes identify licensed local evidence without reproducing its bodies. The complete licensed documentation extraction remains ignored under build/help/genera/; it is not an input a conforming clean-room implementation may silently redistribute.

Normative evidence map

Documentation value and command descriptor

For ZWEI command documentation, a computed documentation function receives the command, the invoking character or NIL, and one of name/full/short. Full key documentation additionally runs every active command hook that has a documentation function. A generic Lisp documentation accessor MUST NOT be substituted for this protocol.

Keyboard registry row

Rows are mutable and their order is observable in Help. A documentation value of NIL hides a Terminal row from Help without unbinding it. System 303 System Help sorts a copy and suppresses repeated character rows and invalid flavor names; System 46 formats its current list directly.

Help dispatcher state

The dispatcher does not commit a new last-option for Space; it substitutes the old option and marks the request as a repeat. A selected option may mutate the current editor independently, notably Undo.

Help Program state

The cache key retains the program object. Negative and positive results are both cached. A lookup MUST clear all entries before consulting the table when the fill pointer differs. Historical HD-G85-HELP deliberately does not detect a same-length in-place replacement, so such a replacement can leave either result stale. A safer implementation MAY add a content-generation counter only as an explicitly nonhistorical mode.

Pop-up Help frame state

Document Examiner records

Invariants

1. A command description resolves against the active command environment at request time; cached static prose MUST NOT override a changed effective binding.
2. Alias resolution preserves the original active table as the lookup authority and prefix descent changes only to the referenced child table.
3. Missing, unimplemented, prefix, macro, menu, and ordinary command results remain distinct states.
4. System and Terminal Help enumerate the registry that drives execution, subject only to their source-defined visibility filters.
5. General Lisp, editor-command, flavor, Help Program, and Sage documentation are independent namespaces; NIL in one MUST NOT erase another.
6. A Help Program cache entry is considered reusable exactly when its recorded Sage topic-array fill pointer equals the current one; no content or identity check is implied.
7. At most one current viewer exists per DEX frame; every displayed item and bookmark belongs to a viewer context and retains its record-group identity.
8. Candidate replacement changes the candidate pane/history without discarding the viewer's displayed-topic sequence or bookmarks.
9. A PSB private document contains a count and topic/type references, not copied documentation bodies.
10. The computed DEX Help record is regenerated when and only when forced or its installed command-documentation tick has changed.
11. Queue removal occurs without interrupts only after the corresponding request has run or its error restart has chosen to skip it.
12. Closing kept Sage streams attempts normal closure first, then abort closure on error, and removes a stream only after one close path succeeds; double failure retains it.
13. Standard versus Small DEX selection depends on inside width: > 950 selects Standard; <= 950 selects Small.

Normative companion incorporation

The following repository documents are normative dependencies rather than general background:

This specification adds every D07-owned stage and leaf below. If a companion and this specification disagree at the same pinned revision, that is a conformance and documentation defect; neither timestamp selects a winner. Runtime/site/user/patch overlays MUST be exported separately from the pristine source profile.

Editor Help entry and precedence

The editor-level tree is:

effective editor input
└─ profile's inherited Help binding -> COM-DOCUMENTATION
   └─ uppercase one-character D07 dispatcher
      ├─ direct option -> option command
      ├─ Space -> substitute persistent last option and set repeat flag
      ├─ dispatcher-help option -> display dispatcher documentation, then reprompt
      ├─ profile-specific abort/cancel -> abort or return
      └─ other -> beep and read again

The active ZWEI/Zmacs command table remains dynamically bound while an option runs. Consequently C, A, D, and W describe the mode, application, task, prefix, and user overlays actually active at entry. The Help dispatcher MUST NOT flatten or cache that table before reading its option.

System 46 ZWEI dispatcher

Letters are uppercased before matching. ? displays Help but is still stored as the last non-Space option before the next loop iteration; a subsequent Space therefore replays dispatcher Help. Options that return normally end the dispatcher except the dispatcher-help branch, which deliberately reprompts.

System 303 ZWEI dispatcher

An exact HD-C303 implementation MUST preserve the hidden-but-accepted L distinction, the fresh-Space no-op loop, and the unreachable ? branch. A corrected extension MAY accept ? and initialize repeat to a reachable option only when labeled nonhistorical.

The display predicate on C303's L row is an arbitrary evaluated form rather than a pure availability bit. Its side effects and conditions occur while the prompt is built. Strict compatibility retains that ordering; a sandboxed implementation MAY constrain predicates only as a documented nonhistorical safety profile.

Genera 8.5 Zmacs dispatcher

Teach Zmacs has a three-outcome setup transaction: an already installed command skips loading; a missing file produces an editor error naming the tutorial target; another setup condition produces an editor error carrying the condition. Only a successful setup invokes the named tutorial command. Licensed tutorial content is outside the redistributable specification.

Genera inherits the lineage's initial last-option = B even though its dispatcher has no B row. Fresh Space therefore substitutes B and silently reprompts. ? and Help are ordinary non-Space inputs for repeat state: each becomes last-option, so a following Space replays dispatcher Help.

Key-documentation recursive tree

All three editor profiles implement this semantic resolution tree, with the profile-specific representation differences stated afterward:

Document Key <input>
├─ absent / NIL -> report undefined
├─ symbol
│  ├─ lacks command-name metadata -> report named implementation missing
│  └─ named command -> print name and implementation identity
│     -> run every active hook documentation function
│     -> print computed or stored full documentation
├─ alias pair -> reconstruct target character -> restart lookup
├─ keyboard macro -> report macro identity and argument/repeat rule
├─ prefix object -> read one child
│  ├─ `*` -> enumerate every defined child with short documentation
│  └─ other -> recurse in child table; prefixes may nest
├─ menu command -> enumerate menu members
└─ other object -> report malformed/garbage binding

System 46 scans four modifier rows by 220 octal character cells when listing a prefix. System 303 supports sparse inherited command tables as well as arrays and adds a special explanation when the selected input is a mouse-scroll object. Genera normalizes a modifier-free prefix child to uppercase, presents function identities semantically, and retains nested prefix recursion.

Two defects are profile-visible. System 46's prefix-listing renderer keeps only one prefix variable, so recursion deeper than one prefix can lose ancestor characters in the printed invocation. System 303 converts a recognized mouse tuple to a character, but an unknown non-Scroll cons enters a loop that neither changes nor rereads the input. Strict-defect tests preserve those results under a watchdog; the default safe mode MUST report the lost-prefix condition or invalid mouse object without hanging and label that behavior INF.

Aliases in the historical code have no cycle guard. A default clean-room implementation MUST detect a repeated (table, character) pair and report an alias cycle without hanging. An isolated strict-defect test MAY reproduce historical nontermination; this safety correction MUST be labeled INF.

Named-command queries

Where Is and Apropos MUST traverse prefixes and current table inheritance according to D05. Presence in a global named-command alist does not prove availability in the current mode. Genera deduplicates repeated physical characters while scanning the full keyboard/mouse character domain.

System 303 Where Is deliberately omits mouse commands, and its result-limit test is off by one: a requested limit can print limit + 1 matches. Both CADR profiles also have a valid :SMALL-FRACTION editor-variable type that their value printer fails to handle; three built-ins therefore show a label without a value in List Variables, Variable Apropos, and Describe Variable. Those are compatibility defects, not missing specification values. C303's generic Lisp Apropos has a separate list-of-packages plus inheritors defect: it iterates a package variable but asks for used-by packages of the whole list. The conformance suite MUST isolate these from the editor command-search registry.

System and Terminal prefix trees

The D07 Help-owned leaves sit inside the D02/TV global tree:

System
├─ `?` or `Help` -> generate System Help from effective registry -> wait for flush input
├─ Rubout -> no selection
├─ <registered key, exact modifier identity> -> apply the profile row policy
└─ unregistered -> no selection; profile-specific beep only where source does so

Terminal / Function
├─ repeated digits and optional `-` -> numeric state -> continue reading
├─ `?` or `Help` -> generate Terminal/Function Help from effective registry
├─ Rubout -> cancel quietly
├─ registered key -> preserve typeahead if flagged -> run in keyboard or new process
├─ asynchronous character -> quote it back to keyboard input where supported
└─ other -> C46 returns quietly; C303 beeps

The non-Help System leaves are normatively incorporated from D02 rather than redefined here. In C46 the lookup preserves the exact modifier bits, and an ordinary registered row auto-creates when no eligible target exists according to that row's policy. In C303, Control explicitly forces creation and is stripped before row lookup. A reimplementation MUST NOT project the latter rule backward onto C46.

The complete source-initial System 46 System registry is E Editor, I Inspector, L Lisp, P Peek, R window error handler, S Supdup, and T Telnet. The registry remains mutable; the effective runtime dump, not this initialization list, controls Help. The fresh System 303 world instead displayed Top-L Lisp(Edit), E Editor, I Inspector, L Lisp, and P Peek.

The source-initial Terminal registries are included here because Help enumerates their actual execution table:

Terminal Help MUST omit any row whose documentation form evaluates false, preserve multi-line documentation, mark the post-NIL separator section as wizard commands, append the profile's fixed function-key summary, and wait for one flush input. The physical identity of System 303's nonprinting Set-Mouse-Screen initializer remains TODO-RUNTIME-HD-TERM-CODE; implementations MUST retain its raw character identity from their selected source rather than guess a modern key name.

C46 numeric accumulation multiplies the current value by eight before adding each accepted digit, even though its accepted range includes 8 and 9. C303 uses decimal accumulation. Minus negates the accumulated value or supplies -1 when no digits were entered. A conforming profile MUST preserve that difference.

Pressing Terminal again resets C46's accumulated argument and minus state. The same input is merely an unknown key in C303. C303's source initializer for Terminal N contains consecutive strings while the Help printer reads one documentation slot; System patch 100.14 instead installs a quoted list of the three lines. Which form is live in the selected System 303-0 band remains TODO-RUNTIME-HD-C303-TERMINAL-N; a source-profile implementation MUST select the unpatched initializer or the named patch rather than concatenate them silently.

Genera global Help and Document Examiner entry tree

Function prefix
├─ `?` -> registered `KBD-ESC-HELP` -> Function Help in matching pop-up frame
└─ `Help` -> same

Symbol-Help key
└─ keyboard Escape-character registration -> console function -> Symbol Help

Select prefix
├─ unmapped or firewall-disabled `?` or `Help` -> Select Help in matching pop-up frame
└─ `D` -> `CHOOSE-DOC-EX-FOR-SCREEN`
   ├─ inside width > 950 or both screen choices NIL -> Standard DEX
   └─ inside width <= 950 -> Small DEX

activity/program entry
├─ Command Processor Select Activity `Document Examiner` -> same chooser/activity
├─ System menu Programs `Document Examiner` -> same activity
├─ Create menu `Document Examiner` -> create program frame through chooser
└─ Help-frame activity presentation -> installed `SI::COM-SELECT-ACTIVITY`

source-defined DEX self-help side door
└─ select default DEX -> enqueue `COM-HELP` with standard output suppressed
   └─ DEX command queue later constructs/displays computed Help

D02 normatively owns Select/Function modifier normalization, firewall, cancellation, and unknown behavior. D07 owns the Help/DEX leaves above. Debugger Control-Help is a D12 caller of the same SHOW-HELP programmatic interface. The source-defined SAGE::SELECT-DOCUMENT-EXAMINER-WITH-SELF-HELP side door is active, but the startup presentation or other effective object that invokes it is outside the inspected D07 closure; record this as TODO-RUNTIME-HD-G85-DEX-SELF-HELP-ENTRY rather than inventing a pointer gesture.

Help Program command and gesture tree

Help Program command input
├─ Help [topic]
│  ├─ no initial topic -> explain accepted concepts -> ACCEPT Help Topic
│  ├─ mapped string/list available -> resolve record group -> Sage Show Documentation
│  ├─ mapped string/list absent -> report not documented -> no Sage display
│  └─ record group -> Sage Show Documentation directly
├─ Command Help -> read a command in the current program -> map -> Help
├─ imported Show Documentation / Show Overview -> Sage operation
├─ injected `window-wakeup-help` presentation blip
│  └─ throw from command reading -> return `(NIL, NIL, :BLANK-LINE)`
└─ unrecognized command -> inherited Command Processor behavior

presentation/gesture input
├─ command-menu item + middle -> map menu label -> Help command if topic exists
├─ program title + middle -> map program name -> Help command if topic exists
├─ program-name presentation in Help-topic context -> record-group conversion
├─ AVV query in Help-topic context -> map query prompt -> record-group conversion
├─ command/menu/overview completion -> union of inherited live candidates
└─ no available topic -> translator inapplicable, allowing normal handler fallthrough

The logical :command-menu-help gesture is mapped to Mouse-Middle. Ordinary left or right menu behavior remains owned by the client command table. The block-commented Show Missing Help implementation is not a command and MUST NOT appear in the base effective tree.

Pop-up Help frame bindings

The Help application owns no D07-local prefix family; inherited scrolling registers do add Control-Meta-S and Control-Meta-R second-stage characters. The compact precedence table above is expanded normatively, including every alias and numeric case, under Complete pop-up Help accelerator behavior. The frame top level establishes a typed SI:INPUT-EDITOR context specifically so Control-Mouse-Right can resolve.

Document Examiner accelerator tree

Document Examiner owns no D07-local multi-character keyboard prefix. Its complete fixed core accelerator set is:

The generated Help deliberately suppresses duplicate display of Control-V and Meta-V while retaining those aliases in the effective accelerator tree. Help's preferred presentation order does not change command precedence. The no-argument behavior above is not an inference from documentation: the standard accelerator macro supplies an empty argument list, and Command Processor's default argument-allowed setting rejects a preceding numeric argument. Only Control-Meta-L and the explicitly parameterized scrolling families accept one.

Document Examiner menus and named commands

The Standard frame's fixed top level is two columns of four. Left and right invoke the direct command for the four Show items, Help, and Reselect Candidates. Select Viewer and Read Private Document use left for their default command and right for their submenu. Help additionally assigns middle to full installed documentation.

Standard menu :top-level
├─ Show Candidates [L/R] -> Show Candidates
├─ Show Documentation [L/R] -> Show Documentation
├─ Show Overview [L/R] -> Show Overview
├─ Show Table of Contents [L/R] -> Show Table of Contents
├─ Help [L/R] -> computed command summary
│  └─ Help [M] -> Document Examiner Documentation
├─ Select Viewer
│  ├─ [L] -> Select Viewer
│  └─ [R] -> :viewer-commands submenu
│     ├─ Select Viewer
│     ├─ Remove Viewer
│     └─ Hardcopy Viewer, when optional module is installed
├─ Reselect Candidates [L/R] -> Reselect Candidates
└─ Read Private Document
   ├─ [L] -> Read Private Document
   └─ [R] -> :private-document-commands submenu
      ├─ Read Private Document
      ├─ Load Private Document
      ├─ Save Private Document
      └─ Hardcopy Private Document, when installed

The Small command table defines this exact staged menu tree. In the inspected source, however, reader conditionals compile the menu-pane reference out of the selected Small layout even though a pane definition remains. Therefore this is the source-defined dispatch hierarchy, not a claim that two cells are visibly present or that an effective user route reaches it in the unexercised frame:

Small menu :small-top-level
├─ Show [L or R] -> :show-commands submenu
│  ├─ Show Documentation
│  ├─ Show Overview
│  ├─ Show Candidates
│  └─ Show Table of Contents
└─ Other [L or R] -> :other-commands submenu
   ├─ Help -> same L/R summary and M full-document split
   ├─ Select Viewer -> same viewer subtree
   ├─ Reselect Candidates
   └─ Read Private Document -> same private-document subtree

Both command tables expose the following active core named commands even when a command has no fixed accelerator or visible top-level cell:

Source-block-commented test commands for moving topics, clearing history, manually inserting/removing ellipses, and evaluating a form are not active and MUST NOT appear in the base table.

Document Examiner presentation tree

The right-button menu is dynamically constructed from applicable translators; it is not one static menu. Every exported effective-tree dump MUST record presentation type, gesture, tester/applicability result, priority, composed conversions, owning command table, selected handler, and shadowed candidates.

Exhaustive binding enumeration requirement

For each selected profile and active context, the conformance runner MUST enumerate:

1. every physical/logical character and modifier supported by the release;
2. every D07 dispatcher stage and every recursively reachable editor prefix child;
3. System and Terminal numeric/prefix paths and the live registry generation;
4. every Help Program command/menu/title/AVV translation;
5. every Help-frame direct and inherited accelerator;
6. every DEX fixed accelerator, named command, Standard/Small menu path, optional module leaf, pointer/presentation gesture, and one unbound gesture; and
7. candidate tables/handlers in precedence order, normalization, numeric state, selected owner/leaf, shadowed values, Help exposure, and final effect-contract ID.

The enumerator MUST terminate on alias, prefix, command-table, presentation conversion, and submenu cycles. It MUST dump pristine and live overlay graphs separately. A name-only mapping without the behavioral contract below is L1 dispatch evidence, not L2 conformance.

Editor dispatcher transaction

The dispatcher is a read/dispatch loop, not an atomic command transaction:

enter COM-DOCUMENTATION
  -> retain current editor command-table/context bindings
  -> display profile-filtered prompt
  -> read one input object
  -> normalize only as the profile specifies
  -> Space substitutes persistent last option
  -> validate against profile option rows
     -> help row: display, retain its profile-specific repeat state, loop
     -> abort/quiet-exit row: perform profile cleanup, return or signal
     -> invalid row: beep or defect behavior, loop
     -> command row: update last-option at the source-defined point
        -> invoke leaf with current editor state
        -> return its display code, value, abort, or condition

The dispatcher does not roll back a leaf that changed a buffer, undo history, minibuffer history, playback state, registry, or displayed output before failing. The implementation MUST distinguish four outcomes: no leaf selected, leaf returned, leaf aborted, and leaf failed after partial effect. The display predicate phase is also observable in C303 and G85 because predicate evaluation can fail before input.

Registry and generated-Help lifecycle

System and Terminal Help enumerate the registry that execution itself will consult. A conforming mutable registry supplies at least these operations:

1. add a row while preserving the profile's duplicate and ordering rule;
2. remove a row by the profile's character-identity rule;
3. save and replay user modifications where the profile supports it;
4. enumerate rows in the profile's source-defined live-list or copied-list order; and
5. execute a selected row after Help returns.

C46 walks its live list without a lock or snapshot, while C303 System Help sorts a copy. Concurrent-mutation behavior is therefore an unresolved historical oracle, not a no-tearing guarantee. C303 System addition stacks a differing row for the same character; removal removes the first row and can reveal the prior definition. Its Terminal add function rejects non-string user documentation even though built-in rows can contain computed forms, lists, or NIL. Replaying user Terminal modifications re-adds saved rows without the :SYSTEM flag and can duplicate entries. These are strict-profile behaviors. An implementation that replaces them with unique-map semantics or a normalized schema MUST expose that as a corrected profile.

Both CADR Help displays dismiss after any input character even when their prose asks for Space. C46 keeps its escape-prefix time marker set during the Help wait and clears it only when the handler returns; C303 clears it before waiting. Input read to dismiss Help is consumed. Registry mutation concurrent with rendering MAY affect the current or a later render according to the selected profile's list operations. A safe snapshot mode MUST be labeled INF.

Help Program mapping and cache lifecycle

Help Program maps a client object or string to an ordered Sage topic specification. The base historical cache key is only the fill pointer of the Sage topic array:

request mapping
  -> read current topic-array fill pointer
  -> if equal to cached fill pointer, reuse availability map
  -> otherwise rebuild map and store the new fill pointer
  -> resolve requested mapping against cached availability
  -> applicable: enter Sage Show Documentation
  -> unavailable: issue the not-documented result

Replacing topic records while preserving the fill pointer can therefore leave a stale availability result. HD-G85-HELP MUST preserve that defect. An optional safe profile MAY add a content generation or identity but MUST demonstrate the differing same-length replacement case. The mapping, availability test, candidate completion, and final Sage display are distinct stages; a successful map does not prove the record can still be opened.

Pop-up Help frame lifecycle and stale-display boundaries

A request finds or creates a matching nonselectable Help program window in the caller's optional console/superior lookup domain. One may be precreated before cold boot when site conditions permit, but source does not prove one global singleton. The request installs a title and renderer, exposes that matching frame, and forces redisplay only according to the caller's cache rule. End, Abort, or the first pseudo-menu item buries the frame; it does not destroy it. A later request in the same lookup domain can therefore expose the same frame with retained pane identity and scroll state subject to the caller's redisplay action.

Function Help compares the identity of TV:*FUNCTION-KEYS* with the last list. Replacing the list forces a refresh; mutating rows or documentation in place can leave the reused display stale. Select Help starts with a T sentinel, flips it to NIL after its first display, and has no source-visible registry generation, so later Select-table or enablement changes can also remain stale. Symbol Help combines fixed explanation with live console-type details and has no equivalent generation. Changing the installed title/renderer or explicitly forcing redisplay remains a separate refresh cause. These stale cases are normative defects for the strict profile.

Document Examiner lifecycle

DEX startup is ordered:

1. select doc-ex for inside width above 950 pixels, otherwise small-doc-ex;
2. create or reactivate the program framework and its viewing-context collection;
3. initialize the default viewer if no current context exists;
4. observe commands and translators already installed by the selected subsystem and optional-module load order;
5. establish viewer, candidate, bookmark, typeout, and command-loop state; and
6. enter the Dynamic Windows top-level loop.

Selecting a viewer snapshots the old viewer's dynamic display context, changes the current viewing context, restores or initializes the new one, updates candidate and bookmark panes, and redisplays affected panes. Previous-viewer selection is indexed over the viewing-context sequence with the exact coercion and error cases in the accelerator table. Removing a viewer deletes it, then selects another context. If no viewer remains, DEX creates and selects a fresh empty Default Viewer before resetting the current viewer and display. Asking to select a nonexistent viewer without creation prints an error to *ERROR-OUTPUT*; it is not a local beep.

DEX catches queued documentation errors at its work-loop boundary, offers the source-defined error restart/skip behavior, and removes a queue item only after it was processed or explicitly skipped. Queue order is FIFO. A failed operation can leave already-created viewers, display records, stream handles, typeout, or history; there is no enclosing database transaction.

Stream and shutdown recovery

Sage record streams retained for redisplay are eligible for idle closure after approximately one minute. Closure first attempts the ordinary close; if that fails, DEX attempts abort close. A stream is removed from the tracked set only after normal or abort close succeeds; if both fail, the condition escapes before removal and the stream remains tracked. The implementation MUST log normal close, abort close, both-failed, and already-removed separately.

Generic Dynamic Windows exit/deactivation is dependency-owned; the selected D07 source establishes no exit-time stream-close guarantee, and its viewer deactivation method is commented out. Retained streams are governed by the idle mechanism only while the top-level loop runs. Exit does not imply an Open Genera Save World, host checkpoint, persisted private document, or closed Sage stream. Preserved-runtime harness shutdown is evidence external to D07 and MUST retain prompt, confirmation, cleanup, forced termination, and private-world hash outcomes separately.

System 46 function documentation precedence

HD-C46 resolves function documentation in this exact order:

1. For a symbol, recurse into its function definition when it is function-bound; if that yields NIL or the symbol is unbound, fall back to the symbol's :DOCUMENTATION property.
2. For a lambda or named-lambda form, skip the name where present, argument list, and optional declaration; return a leading string only when at least one body form follows it. A sole string body therefore returns NIL.
3. For a macro definition, recurse into the macro expansion function.
4. For another function specifier, recurse into its function definition when one exists.
5. For a compiled FEF, return :DOCUMENTATION from debugging information.
6. Otherwise return NIL.

Quick/brief editor description may print an implementation identity and first line; long description prints the retained documentation body. Those presentation modes MUST use this retrieval result without treating an editor-command documentation property as a Lisp function docstring.

System 303 typed documentation precedence

HD-C303's general DOCUMENTATION accepts an object and a document type. Its observable precedence is:

1. type VALUE plus a symbol :DOCUMENTATION property;
2. a symbol's DOCUMENTATION-PROPERTY association selected by string equality after converting the requested document type to a string;
3. type TYPE, through the object's type-expander function documentation;
4. type SETF, through its SETF-method function documentation;
5. any remaining type other than FUNCTION, returning NIL;
6. a function-bound symbol, after removing encapsulation, recursively documenting its definition;
7. a cons or function-like object: macro expansion function first; otherwise debugging information under DOCUMENTATION, then :DOCUMENTATION, then an extracted lambda-body docstring; a defined nonfunction specifier recurses;
8. a compiled function: a combined-method special case, otherwise the same debugging documentation lookup.

The first successful applicable branch wins. A branch that returns NIL does not license a fallback to editor command metadata. The observed world returned NIL for (DOCUMENTATION 'CAR) and for the Dired command symbol while editor Help could still describe Dired, directly proving the registry separation.

Flavor structural description

The flavor report is a structural renderer, not merely a docstring. For a defined flavor it MUST preserve source order while reporting every available category:

• direct dependencies, included flavors, flavors depending on it, and transitive components;
• local and inherited instance variables, declared access, defaults, and total instance size;
• before, primary, after, wrapper, and other methods, including owning flavor and generated status;
• generated getter, setter, and initializer methods;
• accepted initialization keywords, default initialization property list, outside-access macros, and random flavor properties; and
• method table/hash information and any release-visible implementation metadata.

An undefined flavor takes the release's absence path and MUST NOT fabricate an empty report. An error while printing one method or metadata field can leave prior report text visible. C46 and C303 representations differ, so conformance compares semantic rows and order within a selected profile rather than byte-identical prose.

Command search and description

C46 and C303 Apropos search command names only. C46 reports at most four known invocation paths per match. C303 distinguishes a direct/local binding, a local extended-command route, and any extended-command route; its limit defect can emit one more result than requested. G85 alone normally searches names and first documentation lines, while any numeric argument restricts matching to names. Configured synonym sets are processed after the match/no-match output in either case, so a synonym proposal may accompany successful command matches.

Describe Command accepts a named command, resolves the selected implementation in the current context, prints its invocation summary where the profile supplies one, runs documentation hooks, and prints full documentation. A symbol with no command documentation is silent in the historical key-document path rather than guaranteed to print a placeholder. Where Is walks the profile's accessible command tables and prefixes: C303 omits mouse commands and extended-command paths; G85 covers its full keyboard/mouse domain and deduplicates physical characters.

Prefix * is a one-level enumeration. A child that is itself a prefix is described as that child; its descendants are not recursively flattened until the user selects it. The exhaustive conformance tool traverses recursively as a separate audit operation and MUST NOT confuse that audit with historical on-screen output.

Recent input history

C46 Lossage reads the circular input stream, retains number-valued character events, orders them oldest to newest, and prints their key descriptions. C303 records input at the window layer, requires the selected window to support :PLAYBACK, and skips list-valued events while rendering. A hidden C303 L remains invocable even when the prompt predicate says playback is unavailable; the resulting leaf behavior is then controlled by the actual playback call.

Undo

C46 Undo identifies the previous undoable interval, queries the user where required, and replaces the interval with its saved prior contents. C303 distinguishes contained from overlapping change records, queries over the selected change, removes it from the undo list at the source-defined point, and then mutates the buffer. Neither path is transactional: an injected error after history removal or partial interval change MUST leave and report that partial state. D05 owns the general buffer/change model; D07 owns the fact that the Help dispatcher invokes the ordinary Undo leaf.

Editor variables

Variable Apropos matches variable names. Describe Variable completes a name; empty completion enters the editor's BARF/abort path. The ordinary display prints a value, and a numeric argument additionally requests documentation. The exact supported renderers include Boolean, character, decimal, octal, string, atom, and other source-defined categories. :SMALL-FRACTION is declared and used by three built-ins but is not handled by the C46/C303 printer, producing a label without its value. Strict profiles preserve this defect; corrected profiles MAY render it only with an explicit delta.

Dired contextual Help delta

C46 Dired binds ? and Help directly to a static Dired-help command. C303 Dired and BDired instead prepend M = Dired Help dynamically to the general dispatcher. The observed System 303 sequence Help, D, Dired only proved generic named-command description; it did not exercise contextual Dired Help. D06 defines the Dired operation tree and incorporates this D07 leaf. A conforming profile MUST NOT expose both contextual designs as if they were one release.

Tutorial integration

C46 B announces and views the exact logical pathname AI: ZWEI; BASIC ZWEI. Logical-host, open, or file failure propagates after the announcement. The public 53-byte placeholder is evidence for the entry point but is not the intended tutorial and MUST NOT be accepted as recovered content.

C303 has a separate COM-TEACH-ZMACS: if the user's Teach-ZMacs file is absent it copies the 29,879-byte public SYS: ZWEI; TEACH-ZMACS TEXT, then edits the private copy; if present it preserves and edits that copy. It is not a C303 Help-dispatcher leaf. Zwei patch 128.1 adds it to the extended command table, so its presence in a loaded band is an oracle, not a deduction from the current maintained source. Genera T instead loads its licensed example/tutorial component when the command is missing and then invokes the Command Processor command. These three paths MUST remain separate.

Topic mapping

A Help Program mapping is an ordered tuple of zero or more topic components and an optional record type. A single string component is used without whitespace normalization. Multiple or symbolic components are rendered and trimmed before lookup; an all-space component can reach invalid trim indices and condition. The strict profile preserves that edge. The availability cache records misses as well as hits.

Availability means the Sage index contains the requested key. It does not prove that an installed record can be opened. Overview completion adds an installed-record check, so completion and direct translation can disagree. Menu completion walks all inherited menu levels and can offer a mapped label whose topic is absent; invoking Help then reports that it is not documented and opens no record.

Client integration and semantic gestures

Clients may map program names, commands, menu labels, title presentations, and AVV queries. Command Help first reads a command in the current client and then applies the same mapping. Middle-click on an applicable command menu or title uses the Help translation; left and right continue through the client's ordinary menu handlers. The translator MUST be inapplicable rather than consuming input when the topic map or availability test fails.

The keyboard Command Help path is different: it always calls Help with the mapping result. If a client returns NIL for a successfully read command, Help treats that as no initial topic, explains its accepted concept/command query, and performs a second Help Topic accept. That is not translator fallthrough.

When top-level Help explanation is emitted with no partial command string, the Help Program force-injects a window-wakeup-help presentation blip whose object is the followed underlying stream. Its wakeup handler throws from command reading and returns three values—NIL, NIL, and :BLANK-LINE—so the command loop flushes the typeout state. A nonempty partial command does not inject this blip. Output preceding an injection or handler failure remains visible; there is no rollback.

The source-block-commented missing-help auditor is absent. A reimplementation MUST not expose it as an installed base command merely because its text exists in source.

Complete pop-up Help accelerator behavior

The effective table is local Help, then Help Program, Standard Arguments, Input Editor Compatibility, Standard Scrolling, and Marked Text. D28's typed SI:INPUT-EDITOR 96-state pointer tree is incorporated exactly and remains substrate-owned. The Help table also installs SI::COM-SELECT-ACTIVITY so an activity presentation can remain sensitive; this is a command/presentation route, not a fixed accelerator. The remaining effective keyboard accelerators are:

Target selection prefers an appropriate margin-scrollbar window in the top-frame tree, then a viewport-capable window or fallback stream; no target beeps. A screen count of absolute value one moves one screenful with configured line overlap; larger screen counts use (dimension - 1) * count; line mode uses relative jump. A disallowed argument takes accelerator error, beeps, clears input, prints its diagnostic, and reprompts. In particular, backward Infinity is not beginning in this inherited table, unlike the local DEX backward family.

When the reused frame is already selected, wait alone does not force refresh. A new selection first installs an ignore renderer, selects/clears, then installs the real renderer and optionally waits for exposure. Conformance MUST distinguish selected vs buried reuse, same renderer/title, changed renderer/title, explicit force, replacement registry object, and in-place registry mutation. Separately, the top-level handler for a signaled SYS:ABORT removes terminal typeout, buries the frame, and returns NIL so an outer handler can continue; this condition path is not the Abort-key accelerator.

Serial subsystem and optional overlays

The source serial order is viewer pane, overview grapher, examiner, dynamic DEX, display renderer, optional hardcopy commands, DEX commands, and command-table method glue. Commands and paired record-group/name translators imported from NSage are part of the semantic closure even though they live outside ddex.

Development Utilities conditionally contributes Edit Definition. Concordia adds Edit Documentation plus record-group and record-group-name translators at priority 1 on the same :edit-function gesture. In HD-G85-DEX+CONCORDIA, Edit Documentation wins and the base Edit Definition handler remains a recorded shadowed candidate. Small inherits the Standard command table, so selected overlays apply to both layouts.

Computed DEX Help is not an effective-table dump. It deliberately hides the Control-V and Meta-V aliases and contains only rows registered through its Help macro/manual installer. Imported Sage commands, Remove Typeout Window, Show Forward Reference, and some overlays can be executable while absent from computed Help. Generic table removal/mutation does not advance the self-help tick. Implementations MUST preserve the distinction among active tree, Help registry, and rendered Help.

The self-help tick and generated Sage record are process-global, but each frame's DEX item and formatted line-source cache are local. After a tick change, the first frame to invoke Help rebuilds the global record and consumes the tick. A second frame that still owns an old cached Help item can then see no tick change, deduplicate to that old item, and render stale Help. First-ever record construction also deliberately reports changed-p = NIL. Strict compatibility preserves the two-frame stale case; a per-frame generation is an optional correction.

Imported Sage variables are mutable application state. Set accepts a Sage variable and confirmed string and replaces its static value; Clear writes NIL; List prints a dedicated empty result or a Variable/Value table by iterating the static-counter hash table, whose row order is unspecified. Parser rejection, direct non-string values, overwrite, clear, and omission from computed DEX Help are distinct test cases. The interactive parser rejects a non-string Set value, but a direct command-function call passes its value unchanged to set-static-value; strict protocol tests retain that boundary.

The active-example default translator runs documentation example contents. If an ENDEXAMPLECOMPILEDPROLOGUE marker occurs, it first compiles Sage text intervals to core in the SI user package and Common Lisp readtable, transitions with initialization and completion markers, then reads and evaluates subsequent forms. Without the marker it evaluates from the start. It echoes source spans, rotates Listener input/value histories, prints every returned value, resets accumulated forms at example-record markers, and ignores unsupported directive shapes. There is no sandbox or rollback; reader, compiler, evaluator, and already-performed side effects propagate.

Edit Documentation Example copies only Sage text intervals into a reusable non-file Zmacs Lisp buffer named Documentation Examples, inserting a form-feed separator when appending, then opens Zmacs at the appended start. The reimplementation MUST provide a policy gate before executing untrusted or licensed documentation payloads; disabling execution is a deployment policy, not a claim that the historical command was inert. Example bodies are not part of this redistributable specification.

Layout and visible panes

Standard DEX presents a title/status region, documentation viewer, candidates, bookmarks, a bottom-left Commands interactor, and the eight-item two-column menu described by the command tree; the preserved display does not draw box borders around those items. Its main column is top-part then bottom-part. Bottom is four command-pane lines high, with a fixed 660-pixel command pane and menu in the remaining width. The top row fixes title-and-viewer at 660 pixels and gives candidates/bookmarks the remainder, split vertically at one half. The title occupies one line and centers Document Examiner in huge italic Eurex. Candidate and bookmark labels are normal Swiss bold italic; the active command label is only Commands in Swiss bold italic. The parenthetical Completion; end with Return text is semicolon-commented and does not display. The typeout viewer has no blinker or More processor, truncates at end of page, and has left and bottom scrollbars. Candidate/bookmark panes truncate and have right-column vertical scrollbars; command input scrolls.

Standard's viewer margins are a one-pixel ragged border, two-pixel left whitespace, left scrollbar, two-pixel bottom whitespace, bottom scrollbar, and two-pixel white border. Candidate/bookmark panes use one-pixel pattern edges on all four sides, two-pixel left whitespace, left scrollbar, and two-pixel white border. The menu has top/right/bottom one-pixel pattern edges, two-pixel left whitespace, and two-pixel white border. The command pane has left/top/bottom pattern edges, four-pixel left whitespace, left scrollbar, and two-pixel white border.

At inside width 950 or less, Small DEX is selected. Its source defines a menu pane and Show/Other submenu command tables, but the active layout compiles the menu-pane reference out under #+Ignore. A strict implementation therefore MUST NOT invent two visible cells. It MUST implement the source-defined command tables but MUST NOT claim an effective user route reaches them; TODO-RUNTIME-HD-G85-SMALL-DEX remains until a bounded-width run confirms both reachability and the rest of the layout.

Small's selected layout is a column of title, viewer, a four-line horizontal candidate/bookmark row split at one half, and a two-line command pane. The title is large Swiss bold italic; candidate/bookmark labels are small Swiss bold italic; the command label is compiled out. The ignored menu definition is one Show/Other row, but both its layout and size references are excluded, so the title occupies the whole top row. A NIL supplied screen first falls back to TV:MAIN-SCREEN; Standard is selected by absence only when both are NIL. Conformance MUST test widths above, equal to, and below 950, supplied-NIL fallback, and both-screens-NIL construction.

Small's title has one-pixel left/right/bottom pattern edges and two-pixel top whitespace. Its viewer matches Standard except the bottom scrollbar elevator is five pixels thick. Candidate/bookmark panes change left whitespace from two to four pixels and use small labels. The command pane adds the right one-pixel pattern edge; the ignored menu's margin definition matches its own top/right/bottom pattern and two-pixel left/white-border components. The fixed-roman normal command prompt begins with Space plus right-triangle in Standard and Space plus right-open-arrow in Small.

Viewer, item, and context state

A viewing context includes current viewer identity, ordered DEX items, active item, candidate result/history state, bookmark display state, presentation/string/graphics sets, viewport, and redisplay metadata. Context snapshots alias the pane's presentation, string, and graphics sets rather than deep-copying them. Background transfer likewise appends the same display objects from a temporary viewer after coordinate adjustment. Mutation can therefore affect pane/state aliases and retained presentation objects; sharing between two distinct viewing contexts remains a runtime oracle unless deliberately injected.

DEX item deduplication is EQ topic plus EQ canonical property type, not string equality. Removing an absent item passes an invalid index onward and can condition; the normal UI prevents this, but direct protocol conformance MUST retain it. Failed viewer selection falls the current pointer back to the first viewer without the normal pane-reset path. Repeated background routing appends an already-found Background context again, so identical context references can occur in history.

Bookmarks are stably ordered with items whose seen-contexts is nonempty before items never seen anywhere. This is not a selected-viewer membership test. Remove Item and selection operations use bookmark identity and conversion rules from the presentation tree, not rendered-title equality.

Candidate query and history

Candidate input removes Space from accept-blip terminators so Space is accepted as content; the candidate substring MUST be the final positional argument. Matching supports exact equality, heuristic/token, substring, and initial routes selected by the source query path.

Heuristic matching tokenizes and then reverses the token list. If a one-character open/close delimiter such as / or ? yields no tokens, it falls back to a one-element list containing the original string. The resulting process-global list is stored in ZWEI:*LAST-MATCH-LIST*; concurrent queries can overwrite it.

No candidates takes the editor barf path—beep plus diagnostic—and retains the old candidate pane and history. Successful results are destructively sorted by rendered title with case-insensitive string-lessp; order among equal titles is unspecified. Candidate history uses default EQL/identity on the result-list and reason objects, not structural query equality. Reselect restores stored results and does not rerun the query, despite an obsolete source comment.

Surface routing and item navigation

Show Documentation prepares the persistent viewer and adds/deduplicates a DEX item. Add Bookmark adds or deduplicates the record without displaying it. Show Overview does not prepare the viewer: it writes its formatted block and graph to the viewer-owned transient typeout overlay, drawing a thick separator first when incomplete typeout is already exposed. Space removes that overlay. Show Candidates and Show Table of Contents replace only the candidate contents. A clone that renders Overview as a persistent viewer topic is incompatible.

Remove Item first removes any typeout, deletes the item from bookmark/viewer arrays, compacts displayed regions, and clears history when nothing visible remains. A direct absent-item call can condition. Table of Contents flattens depth-tagged children only from expand caller triples and includes the selected topic as root. It replaces candidates only when more than one item exists and logs regardless; a topic with no children can beep once on NIL candidate replacement and again on the subsequent barf diagnostic.

Beginning/End of Topic default to the first item overlapping the viewport. End redisplays from the item's start if it fits; otherwise it walks line boxes backward until accumulated height exceeds viewer height and begins at the following box. Goto Beginning/End use the selected viewer's first/last item. Refresh redraws candidates and viewer; the explicit bookmark-redisplay call is commented out and incremental state owns any bookmark update.

Topic and overview display

Preparing a DEX item lazily creates and then permanently caches one formatted Sage line source. It does not notice documentation recompilation or viewer resize. The formatted source ends with a two-pixel, screen-scaled, 33-percent-gray separator. Strict compatibility preserves this stale cache; a corrected implementation may key it by record/content/width generation only as a labeled extension.

Incremental display consumes horizontal boxes until viewport height is exhausted, but continues while a presentation stack is open so nested boxes close consistently. When content remains it adds a centered italic sans-serif ellipsis presentation five pixels below the prior cursor with a two-pixel 33-percent-gray rule. The presentation object contains the DEX item and top offset. A prospective Y scroll that would expose the active item's ellipsis cancels that viewport change and enqueues Show More of Topic; relative or absolute mouse scrolling also queues bookmark redisplay.

Show More removes the ellipsis under abort suppression, moves any following topic to make room, and formats more content into the viewport. If later aborted, it restores a visible ellipsis, moves the following region back, and clears the active item. This is targeted partial recovery, not a transaction.

Show Overview first emits a fixed-500-pixel formatted block containing presented type/title, optional one-line description, structural parents for expand/precis/ contents views (omitted for documents), containing documents, keyword-token lists except the title-derived first list, and deduplicated crossreferences recursively harvested through included fragments. The Related field is deliberately excluded. It then draws a horizontal immediate-family graph:

• roots are structural parents, or the topic itself when there are none;
• duplicate parent records are removed;
• concept records with the same EQ topic collapse to one node;
• only every root's children and the original topic's children expand;
• dictionary children are hidden except when dictionary is the original topic;
• field width is (inside-width + column-spacing) / tree-depth - column-spacing;
• labels use small Swiss roman, no border, five-pixel within-column spacing, and are record-group presentations; and
• after drawing, the viewport is restored to overview start if rendering scrolled past it.

The depth pass and recursive fragment-reference scan have no explicit visited-set. Structural or fragment cycles can nonterminate. Strict-defect tests use a watchdog; a safe extension MAY add cycle detection and MUST label the result INF.

Private document binary contract

A private document is a PSB reference list, not copied prose or viewer state. Its outer stream has byte size 8 and begins with an unsigned 16-bit little-endian entry count. Each entry encodes a topic followed by a type:

topic
├─ string shorter than 256 bytes -> code 11, uint8 length, bytes
├─ longer string -> code 12, uint32-LE length, bytes
├─ fat/styled string -> code 34, selected SAB fat-string encoding
└─ non-string function spec -> code 2, printed representation encoded as string

type
└─ code 1 (type-symbol)
   └─ shared symbol table
      ├─ code 14, uint16-LE prior symbol index
      └─ definition
         ├─ code 15 uninterned -> symbol-name string
         ├─ code 16 Sage package -> symbol-name string
         ├─ code 32 keyword package -> symbol-name string
         └─ code 17 other package -> package-name string -> symbol-name string

Symbol indices are insertion ordered and shared across entries. Thin strings and the default :BIN-CHARACTER topic path are the interoperable L2 target; complete code 34 fat-string subencoding is reserved for L3 until its character dependency is closed. Code 33 is a reference, not a fat string. String lengths use the stated 8- or 32-bit form with the 255/256 boundary. The reader requires type code 1 and resolves each pair immediately against installed Sage records.

When entry count exceeds 65,535, the 16-bit header wraps but Save still writes every active bookmark. A strict reader consumes the wrapped prefix and leaves trailing SAB objects unchecked. A wrapped symbol-reference index can resolve to the wrong earlier symbol or fail validation. These are historical overflow defects, not permission to truncate the writer's loop.

Save creates/truncates its target and writes progressively; there is no temporary file or rename, so failure leaves a partial file. Read/Load selects or creates the requested viewer before opening or decoding, and applies each entry immediately. A missing file, malformed code, truncated item, missing package/type/topic, or later record error can leave a selected/new viewer containing the valid prefix already displayed or bookmarked. No rollback is permitted in the strict profile.

Work queues and hardcopy

The local queue is checked before the background queue; each queue is FIFO. A caught error or abort still removes the request after its restart/skip decision. Queue and stream state MUST be inspectable so conformance can distinguish pending, active, processed, skipped, failed, and removed.

Fresh requests are appended with destructive concatenation. The head stays present while its function runs; only normal return or the selected Skip restart performs an interrupt-suppressed delete, which can remove every EQL occurrence of the same request object. A continuous local producer can starve background work. New requests appended during processing retain FIFO order behind the active head.

The idle timer is 60 seconds. After a timeout with tracked streams, DEX attempts normal then abort close and deletes the stream only after one path completes; if abort close also errors, deletion is not reached. When the set becomes empty it stores the :none sentinel. A timeout with no streams sets a long-ago marker; later ordinary input plus newly opened streams resets the timer instead of closing them immediately.

Hardcopy is an optional installed extension. Printer selection and output errors are external transaction boundaries. seen-only is not a per-item filter: it emits the contiguous bookmark prefix until the first item not seen in the selected viewer, then stops. Stable seen-before-unseen ordering normally makes this useful; a direct reordered fixture can omit later seen items and MUST be tested. Hardcopy output is not a runtime screenshot and its documentation/source content retains separate rights treatment.

The default target is the configured default text printer only if Sage accepts it, otherwise the first accepted previous Sage target, otherwise NIL and a prompt. Viewer hardcopy titles output with the viewer name and defaults seen-only to true. Hardcopy Documentation wraps one Sage display in kept-file handling. Hardcopy Private Document opens an output device titled by pathname and reads PSB with context-p NIL, so it does not create/select/mutate a DEX viewer, but it prints records progressively. A later parse or device error leaves a partial printer job.

Editor dispatcher witnesses

The selected C303 runtime displays the live dispatcher as a transient editor Help surface, not as a separate application frame:

Runtime observation — System 303-0, session d06-d07-20260718, generation 1, verified 2026-07-18 after pressing Help and then Help. The reviewed 768 by 963 image is 4,770 bytes; PNG SHA-256 e0d6bf39d9de90b8c94ba93aeb2a70bbe1bec1e8ebbefebf80ffa371ac420c48; normalized-pixel SHA-256 b56f866686fe6414758656dff8b60f3657fc35aa63978f70402e34fb0b8cd83d. It establishes the visible C, D, L, A, U, V, W, Space, and Help choices and active Zmacs Lisp context. It does not establish the hidden-L path, unreachable ?, leaf effects, or maintained-source identity. MIT and other applicable rightsholders retain interests in the screen expression; this minimum image is published under the page-specific fair-use review to support historical criticism and reconstruction, and no endorsement is implied.

The Genera editor retains the same dispatcher pattern but adds the tutorial and quiet exit rows:

Runtime observation — Genera 8.5, session zmacs-research, generation 1, verified 2026-07-18 after the recorded host-key probes and host F12 dispatch. The reviewed 1200 by 900 image is 2,846 bytes; PNG SHA-256 3bb262dd10fbc7e641a749a9047af753fc7886774815d88321e8c5a925a26c28; normalized-pixel SHA-256 9faf0e0c2fc57d3f81df27896cffaad1e6a4afeafa7fc4b64051702c97dcb474. It establishes the visible A, C, D, L, T, U, V, W, Space, Help, and Abort prompt in that run. Host F12 was only a harness mapping and is not a Symbolics-keyboard claim; the image does not establish leaf effects or conditional hidden acceptance. Symbolics and other applicable rightsholders retain interests in the licensed screen; this minimum image is published under the page-specific fair-use review to support historical criticism and reconstruction, and no endorsement is implied.

The two captures have been reassessed for this specification under the repository's four-factor screenshot policy. They contain only the short interface state needed to analyze the dispatcher and are not substitutes for Help prose or a manual.

System and Terminal Help visual boundary

The C303 session also reached a generated System Help table showing Top-L Lisp(Edit), E Editor, I Inspector, L Lisp, and P Peek. Its local raw capture remains unreviewed and is therefore not linked here. TODO-SCREENSHOT-HD-C303-SYSTEM-HELP requires a specific four-factor review, curated copy, complete portable sidecar/run join, and catalog entry before publication. No C46 or Terminal Help runtime is presently available; their source-complete display rules remain TODO-HD-C46-BAND and TODO-HD-C303-TERM rather than inferred pixels.

Pop-up Help frame visible contract and blocker

The source-defined frame is one simple vertical column: a one-line centered title, a display pane taking the remainder, and a three-line pseudo-menu. The display is a typeout pane with ragged border, two pixels of left whitespace, vertical and bottom scrollbars as needed, and a five-pixel white border; commands do not themselves redisplay it. The short Press End to exit. instruction itself is a Swiss bold large presentation whose object is the first command-menu item; no separate Exit label is drawn. The frame is nonselectable and a deexpose callback buries it under a recursion guard.

No current Genera capture confidently reached that frame; attempted Select/Help states remained ordinary listener/selection views. Therefore TODO-SCREENSHOT-HD-G85-HELP-FRAME blocks pixel-level layout conformance. A future run MUST exercise title NIL, same/changed title and renderer, selected/buried reuse, force, wait, renderer failure, deexpose recursion, top-level abort, and the pseudo-menu's first item before one representative image is reviewed.

Standard Document Examiner witness

Runtime observation — Genera 8.5, session d06-d07-genera-20260718, generation 3, verified 2026-07-18 after Select D. The reviewed 1200 by 900 image is 6,475 bytes; PNG SHA-256 2579d041983693aec1a794ba1efa23ca70e21421c2a2ca5b7eaab8d39e908834; normalized-pixel SHA-256 0f6cf810c2665a4f3d36c6ec6fce918d3149d2489c1c01a3cef77545365d7bdc; the two-action prefix hash is aeb83393dc85ed3d90ab081717e341a7b01068090e6bcda5080778f61b6b831b. It establishes the Standard arrangement, Default Viewer label, candidate/bookmark split, Commands interactor, and positions of eight text menu items. It does not prove boxed cells, gestures, the 950-pixel threshold, Small layout, search effects, Help contents, or optional commands. Symbolics and other applicable rightsholders retain interests in the licensed screen; this minimum image is published under the page-specific fair-use review to support historical criticism and reconstruction, and no endorsement is implied.

This licensed-world run used the repository's isolated Genera harness. The curated asset catalog retains the exact base/private VLOD, VLM, debugger, preload, responder, configuration, sandbox, Xvfb, selected-window, input, screenshot, and shutdown evidence. Shutdown reached confirmed cleanup and then the bounded known VLM stall; it was forced, the private world was unchanged, and no Save World or checkpoint is claimed.

Remaining visual oracles

The current 1200-pixel display cannot select Small DEX. A run at exactly 950 pixels and one below it MUST capture the actual no-menu selected layout and compare pane bounds, labels, text styles, and scrollbars. A separate null-screen construction test must confirm Standard class selection without claiming visible pixels. Rich Help, candidate-result, private-document, and documentation screens remain local because they could reproduce licensed prose; visual conformance SHOULD use researcher-created or minimal records unless a specific screenshot review finds the screen necessary.

Artifact and dispatcher tests

Effective binding and query tests

Editor leaf and metadata tests

System and Terminal registry tests

Help Program and pop-up-frame tests

Document Examiner input, state, and display tests

Candidate, rendering, serialization, and queue tests

Visual, rights, and provenance tests

CADR

1. Verify the exact public Git/Fossil pins and record the selected band's independent checksum and private-disk identities.
2. Start a fresh named Xvfb harness session; retain all required start- and execution-time provenance and verify no prior state is reused silently.
3. Exercise only the named test sequence, recording every input intent and screen.
4. Export the live command/prefix registries before and after mutation probes.
5. Join screenshot sidecars to run.json for execution-time usim identity.
6. Exit normally where possible and retain forced_stop and state_may_be_incomplete; never promote a forced run to clean evidence.
7. Keep raw captures ignored. Curate only the minimum screen after a separate rights review and catalog update.

Genera

1. Copy the exact licensed world/debugger/VLM inputs into the private ignored runtime and verify every hash required by the harness record.
2. Launch the private VLM only through the repository harness, with the documented namespaces, read-only Guix/helpers/X socket, no external guest route, MIT-SHM disabled and live-verified, exact X11 substitutions, and supervised RFC 868 reply.
3. Require the harness's running markers before interaction. Select and record the exact X window and geometry.
4. Record each input intent before XTEST and its outcome afterward. For DEX, prefer researcher-created/minimal topics and never expose a VLM-writable capture path to host ImageMagick.
5. Export effective command, translator, Help-registry, viewer, and cache generations without copying licensed prose into tracked output.
6. Preserve shutdown stages separately. The current VLM's confirmed cleanup stall requires bounded kill; this is not orderly and does not prove Save World.
7. Keep raw payloads ignored and submit each proposed screenshot to exact-image, exact-page review.

Recorded runtime witnesses

Runtime comparison MUST report observed text, state, hashes, and uncertainty; it MUST NOT overwrite a source-profile result merely because the preserved band differs.