docs: state the arity-1 carve-out that makes 'one rule, one sentence' true (fixes #635)#672
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InauguralPhysicist merged 1 commit intoJul 18, 2026
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SPEC.md's "one rule, one sentence" and LANGUAGE_CONTRACT.md's argument- unpacking section both claim brackets after `of` always spread into the callee's parameters positionally. That's false for a 1-parameter, non-defaulted callee: it has only one slot, so a 2+-element literal list re-collects whole and binds to that parameter instead of spreading (`one of [3, 4]` binds `a = [3, 4]`, not `a = 3`, for `define one(a)`). This is exactly what keeps `len of [1, 2]` and `print of [1, 2]` working — the implementation is right and load-bearing, so the docs are corrected to describe it instead. Adds the carve-out next to both "one rule" statements in SPEC.md (the call section and the evaluation-model reference) and alongside the existing `f of []` note in LANGUAGE_CONTRACT.md, plus a new executable SPEC.md example that pins the behavior under the doc-example gate. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Docs only, per the issue — the implementation stays untouched (it's right and load-bearing).
Before writing a word I verified the mechanism against source and a live probe:
src/vm.cre-collects all call-site arguments into a single list for a 1-parameter, non-defaulted callee in both the JIT fast path (:1801-1813) and the interpreter path (:1828-1844);one of [3, 4]→[3, 4],one of [3, 4, 5]→[3, 4, 5],one of []→[], identical underEIGS_JIT_OFF=1,--lintsilent — your reproduction exactly.What changed:
len of [1, 2]returning 2 depends on it) — plus your doc-gate example as a new executable SPEC example (the [89] gate now checks 72 examples, was 71; the new one passes).f of []half of the exception under Default parameter values.Item 4 of the issue's fix list (extending W017's hint) is a "consider" and a code change — left out of this docs PR deliberately; happy to take it separately if you want it.
Full suite green before and after: 3090/3090 baseline → 3091/3091 (exactly the one new doc example), doc-drift gates included.
Generated by Claude Fable 5 (brief, review), Claude Sonnet 4.6 (implementation)