akbasic/TODO.md

# TODO

Implementation plan for the Go → C port of `deps/basicinterpret`.

This file is written to be executed by AI agents, not read by humans for inspiration. Every
item names the files it touches, the exact deliverable, and the command that proves it done.
Work the phases in order. Inside a phase, items with no `Depends:` line may be done in
parallel.

---

## 0. Agent protocol

### 0.1 The Go reference is deprecated. Stop matching it.

**`deps/basicinterpret` is a dead project. It will not be updated, and this interpreter is no
longer required to reproduce its behaviour.** Recorded here first because it silently reverses
the premise several sections of this file were written on, and because an agent that reads them
without this will park work that is no longer blocked.

What it changes:

- **§6 is now an ordinary defect list.** "Port the behaviour first so the port is provably
  faithful" is retired. Fix them because they are wrong, not when fidelity permits.
- **§1.8's message-text contract is now a convention.** Improving a message is allowed; it costs
  a golden file, which is a cost rather than a veto.
- **§5's bar drops** from "defensible against the golden suite" to defensible on its own merits.
- **`tests/reference/` becomes a regression suite rather than a specification.** Diverging from
  it is allowed and must be deliberate and recorded — see its README.

What it does **not** change:

- The corpus stays and stays green. Forty-one real BASIC programs with known-good output are
  worth having whatever their provenance, and an unexplained change there is still a red flag.
- The Go source stays readable as documentation. It remains the best answer to "what did the
  original actually do here", which is a question worth being able to answer even once the
  answer stops being binding.
- Nothing about the `ak*` house rules, which never came from the reference.

**Read these before touching anything**, in this order:

1. `CLAUDE.md` in this repository — project goals, the `libakerror` convention, the error-code
   range map, and the dependency versions.
2. `deps/libakerror/AGENTS.md` — the `ATTEMPT`/`CLEANUP`/`PROCESS`/`HANDLE`/`FINISH` protocol.
3. `deps/libakerror/UPGRADING.md` — 1.0.0's status registry. Required before writing an error
   code; the mechanism it replaced is gone.
4. `deps/libakstdlib/TODO.md` §2.1 — six **confirmed** defects in the library this port calls
   into. §1.9 below says which calls are cleared for use; that section is not optional
   reading, it bans a family of functions the port would otherwise reach for by reflex.
5. `deps/libakgl/AGENTS.md` — the no-`malloc` rule and the commit co-author requirement.
6. `deps/basicinterpret/README.md` — the language reference and the unimplemented list. Still
   worth reading for the verb set and the semantics; no longer binding, per §0.1.

**Rules for working this file:**

- **Do not** mark an item done until its acceptance command passes on a clean out-of-tree
  build. "It compiles" is not acceptance.
- **Do** update this file in the same commit as the work: strike the item, or replace it with
  the defect it uncovered. This file holds outstanding items only.
- **Do** add the agent program name, model name and version as a commit co-author. That rule
  comes from `libakgl` and applies here.
- **Never** hand-edit generated output. `build/` trees and the generated `akerror.h` are
  off-limits; change the generator.
- **Never** reformat a file you are not otherwise changing.
- When a step is blocked because `libakgl` cannot supply a capability, **do not work around
  it here.** File it in `deps/libakgl/TODO.md` in the numbered prose style of that file's
  "Carried over" section and note the block in §7 below.

**Style**, restated so nobody has to go look: C99, 4-space indent, tabs at width 8
(`stroustrup`), function-body braces in column 0 on their own line, control braces on the same
line, **always brace**, spaces inside control-flow parens — `if ( x == y ) {`. Pointer star
binds to the identifier: `char *name`. Prefix is `akbasic_` for functions,
`akbasic_TypeName` for types, `AKBASIC_UPPER_SNAKE` for macros. `static` helpers drop the
prefix. Parameter names must match between header and source.

---

## 1. Design decisions already made

These are settled. Do not relitigate them mid-port; if evidence says one is wrong, say so in
a commit that changes it deliberately, and update this section.

### 1.1 Reflection becomes one aligned dispatch table

The Go runtime resolves verbs with `reflect.MethodByName("Command" + NAME)`
(`basicruntime.go:401`), functions with `"Function" + NAME`, and special parse paths with
`"ParseCommand" + NAME` (`basicparser.go:103`). C has no reflection and we are not adding
any. Replace all three with **one** static table in `src/verbs.c`, sorted by name, searched
with `bsearch(3)`:

```c
/* name        token type              parse handler          exec handler        */
{ "AUTO",      AKBASIC_TOK_CMDIMM,     NULL,                  cmd_auto      },
{ "DATA",      AKBASIC_TOK_COMMAND,    parse_data,            cmd_data      },
{ "DEF",       AKBASIC_TOK_COMMAND,    parse_def,             cmd_def       },
```

A `NULL` parse handler means "parse the rval as a plain expression", which is exactly what
`commandByReflection` returning `(nil, nil)` means today. Adding a verb is adding one row plus
two functions. **Keep the table column-aligned and one row per verb** — it is a table, so it
gets laid out as one.

This also kills the Go scanner's three separate maps (`reservedwords`, `commands`,
`functions`, `basicscanner.go:64-67`): the token type lives in the same row.

### 1.2 Strings are fixed-size and live inline

`libakstdlib` has no string type. `libakgl` has `akgl_String` but it is `PATH_MAX` bytes,
refcounted, and pool-allocated — wrong shape for a value that gets copied on every
assignment, and it would drag a `libakgl` dependency into the core interpreter.

Define in `include/akbasic/types.h`:

```c
#define AKBASIC_MAX_STRING_LENGTH    256    /* matches AKBASIC_MAX_LINE_LENGTH */
```

and give `akbasic_Value` a `char stringval[AKBASIC_MAX_STRING_LENGTH]` **inline**. `clone()`
becomes a struct assignment. No allocator, no refcount, no lifetime question.

**Tradeoff, stated:** every `akbasic_Value` is ~300 bytes, so one environment's
`values[AKBASIC_MAX_VALUES]` pool is ~19KB, and 32 environments is ~610KB of BSS. That is
fine on a PC and is the price of never calling `malloc`. If it ever isn't fine, the knob is
`AKBASIC_MAX_STRING_LENGTH`, not the allocator.

Truncation is an **error**, not a silent clamp: `FAIL_RETURN(e, AKBASIC_ERR_VALUE, ...)`.

### 1.3 Maps become fixed-capacity open-addressed tables

Five Go maps need replacing:

| Go site | Purpose | C replacement |
|---|---|---|
| `BasicScanner.reservedwords/commands/functions` | keyword → token type | the §1.1 static table + `bsearch` |
| `BasicEnvironment.variables` | name → `*BasicVariable` | `akbasic_SymbolTable`, capacity `AKBASIC_MAX_VARIABLES` |
| `BasicEnvironment.functions` | name → `*BasicFunctionDef` | `akbasic_SymbolTable`, capacity `AKBASIC_MAX_FUNCTIONS` |
| `BasicEnvironment.labels` | name → line number | `akbasic_SymbolTable`, capacity `AKBASIC_MAX_LABELS` |

One implementation, `src/symtab.c`, keyed by `aksl_strhash_djb2()` (already in
`libakstdlib`) with linear probing and a fixed slot array. **Use the existing hash; do not
write another one.** Table full is an error, not a resize.

Caveat, from `deps/libakstdlib/TODO.md` §1.6/§2.2.6: the wrapper sign-extends `char`, so a
high-bit byte hashes wrong — `"\xff\xfe"` returns 5859874 where the `unsigned char` answer is
5868578. BASIC identifiers are 7-bit ASCII (the scanner only accepts `IsLetter`/`IsDigit` plus
a type suffix), so this cannot bite the symbol tables. It **would** bite if anyone later keys
a table on a string literal or a filename. Do not work around it here; it is already filed
upstream.

### 1.4 Environments come from a pool and are released

Go calls `new(BasicEnvironment)` at `basicruntime.go:121` and `basicparser_commands.go:124`
and never frees one. A long-running `GOSUB` or `FOR` in Go leaks; the GC eventually catches
some of it, and nothing in the tests notices.

C gets `HEAP_ENVIRONMENT[AKBASIC_MAX_ENVIRONMENTS]` with
`akbasic_env_acquire()` / `akbasic_env_release()`, in the shape of `akgl_heap_next_*`.
`akbasic_runtime_prev_environment()` **must** release the environment it pops. Pool
exhaustion is `AKBASIC_ERR_ENVIRONMENT`, reported with the current line number.

Watch the one place this is not a clean stack: `userFunction` (`basicruntime.go:348`) stores
a `BasicEnvironment` **by value** inside `BasicFunctionDef` and re-`init()`s it on every call.
In C the funcdef holds an `akbasic_Environment *` acquired at `DEF` time and reset per call —
it is owned by the funcdef, not the pool's free list, until the funcdef dies.

### 1.5 Output goes through a text sink backend

`Write()` and `Println()` (`basicruntime_graphics.go:140,148`) mirror every line to stdout
*and* to an SDL surface. That mirror is the only reason the golden-file suite works. Do not
reproduce it as a hardcoded pair of calls.

Define a record of function pointers, populated by an initializer — the house pattern:

```c
typedef struct akbasic_TextSink
{
    void *self;
    akerr_ErrorContext AKERR_NOIGNORE *(*write)(struct akbasic_TextSink *self, char *text);
    akerr_ErrorContext AKERR_NOIGNORE *(*writeln)(struct akbasic_TextSink *self, char *text);
    akerr_ErrorContext AKERR_NOIGNORE *(*readline)(struct akbasic_TextSink *self, char *dest, size_t len);
    akerr_ErrorContext AKERR_NOIGNORE *(*clear)(struct akbasic_TextSink *self);
} akbasic_TextSink;
```

`akbasic_sink_init_stdio()` is in the library and `akbasic_sink_init_akgl()` is in the
akgl-backed module. The driver is supposed to pick: a default build selects stdio, while an
`AKBASIC_WITH_AKGL` build selects the SDL text path and mirrors its output to stdout. It does
not do that yet; §3 records the missing standalone frontend. Cursor arithmetic, wrapping and
scrolling belong to the akgl sink, not to the interpreter.

### 1.6 The interpreter steps; it does not run

Go's `run()` (`basicruntime.go:682`) is a `for {}` that owns the process until `MODE_QUIT`.
Goal 3 forbids that: a host game must be able to bound execution.

The library exposes:

```c
akerr_ErrorContext AKERR_NOIGNORE *akbasic_runtime_step(akbasic_Runtime *obj);
akerr_ErrorContext AKERR_NOIGNORE *akbasic_runtime_run(akbasic_Runtime *obj, int maxsteps);
```

`_step()` does exactly what one iteration of Go's `for {}` body does and returns.
`_run(obj, maxsteps)` loops `_step()` until the mode is `AKBASIC_MODE_QUIT` or `maxsteps`
steps have elapsed; `maxsteps <= 0` means unbounded, which is what the standalone driver
passes. **This is a deliberate restructure, and it must not change a single byte of golden
output.**

`QUIT` sets `AKBASIC_MODE_QUIT` and returns. **Nothing in the library calls `exit()`,
`abort()`, or `FINISH_NORETURN`.** `FINISH_NORETURN` appears exactly once in the tree, in
`src/main.c`.

### 1.7 Error codes are absolute, reserved from the 1.0.0 registry

`deps/libakerror` is at **1.0.0**. Read `deps/libakerror/UPGRADING.md` before writing an error
code; `CLAUDE.md`'s error-code section is the condensed version. Three things this changes
from what you may have seen in an older draft or in `libakgl`:

- `AKERR_MAX_ERR_VALUE` **no longer exists**. The name registry is sparse and takes any `int`.
  There is nothing for a consumer to size, and no compile definition to set. Anywhere you find
  one, delete it.
- `__AKERR_ERROR_NAMES` **no longer exists**. The table is private.
- Codes are **absolute integer constants at 256 or above**, never `AKERR_LAST_ERRNO_VALUE + N`.
  The offset scheme is what produced the live `libakgl` collision documented in `CLAUDE.md`.

`akbasic` owns **512–767** per the range map in `CLAUDE.md`. Declare it as an `enum`, so the
values stay compile-time integer constants (`HANDLE` expands to `case` labels, which require
that) and adding a code does not mean renumbering an offset:

```c
#define AKBASIC_OWNER "akbasic"

enum {
    AKBASIC_ERR_BASE        = 512,   /** Start of akbasic's reserved status range */
    AKBASIC_ERR_SYNTAX      = AKBASIC_ERR_BASE,
                                     /** Parse-time grammar violation */
    AKBASIC_ERR_TYPE,                /** Incompatible types in an operation */
    AKBASIC_ERR_UNDEFINED,           /** Reference to an undefined verb, function or label */
    AKBASIC_ERR_BOUNDS,              /** Array subscript or pool index out of range */
    AKBASIC_ERR_ENVIRONMENT,         /** Environment pool exhausted or orphaned environment */
    AKBASIC_ERR_VALUE,               /** A value was malformed, truncated or unconvertible */
    AKBASIC_ERR_STATE,               /** A verb ran outside the block structure it requires */
    AKBASIC_ERR_LIMIT       = AKBASIC_ERR_BASE + 256
};
```

`akbasic_init()` reserves the **whole** 256 in one call and then names each code. Both
registry calls return `akerr_ErrorContext *` and are `AKERR_NOIGNORE`, so a collision is an
ordinary error — `PASS` it and let it propagate out of init:

```c
akerr_ErrorContext AKERR_NOIGNORE *akbasic_init(void)
{
    PREPARE_ERROR(errctx);

    PASS(errctx, akerr_reserve_status_range(AKBASIC_ERR_BASE,
					    AKBASIC_ERR_LIMIT - AKBASIC_ERR_BASE,
					    AKBASIC_OWNER));
    PASS(errctx, akerr_register_status_name(AKBASIC_OWNER, AKBASIC_ERR_SYNTAX,
					    "Syntax Error"));
    /* ... one per code ... */
    SUCCEED_RETURN(errctx);
}
```

Reserve the whole range in **one** call — a subset or superset of your own range raises
`AKERR_STATUS_RANGE_OVERLAP`, not a no-op. Use `akerr_register_status_name()`, never the
two-argument `akerr_name_for_status(status, name)` set path: the owned form is the one that
catches a component writing into a range that is not its own, and the two-argument form is
what let `libakgl` silently clobber `libakerror`'s names.

There is no startup ceiling to assert any more — the BSS-overflow hazard the old draft
defended against was deleted along with `AKERR_MAX_ERR_VALUE`. What replaces it is the
reservation itself: if `akbasic_init()` returns an error, something else owns part of 512–767
and the process must not continue as though it does not.

Do not call `akerr_init()` first. Every registry entry point calls it, and since 1.0.0 it no
longer clears reservations made before it ran.

### 1.8 Error message text is a convention, no longer a contract

`tests/language/array_outofbounds.txt` is, verbatim:

```
? 20 : RUNTIME ERROR Variable index access out of bounds at dimension 0: 4 (max 2)\n\n
```

The trailing double newline is real: `basicError` builds a string ending in `\n` and hands it
to `Println`, which adds another.

**This used to be a hard contract and is now a default.** The Go implementation is deprecated
and will not be updated, so the two projects are no longer required to match — see §0.1. What
survives is the practical half: these strings and this newline behaviour are what every
expectation in `tests/reference/` was written against, so changing one means changing golden
files, and that is worth doing on purpose rather than by accident. A message that reads
awkwardly *may* now be improved; do it deliberately, move the expectations in the same commit,
and add a line to §5.

Numeric formatting still matches the reference: integers via `%" PRId64 "`, floats via `%f`
(Go's `%f` and C's `%f` both give six decimals — `tests/reference/language/arithmetic/float.txt`
confirms). No reason to change it, which is different from not being allowed to.

### 1.9 Which `libakstdlib` calls are cleared for use — **the bans are lifted**

`deps/libakstdlib` is at **0.2.0**, and that release *fixed all six* of the confirmed defects
this section was built around, plus seventeen contract gaps. The table of bans that used to
live here is gone because it is no longer true, and leaving it would send an agent around a
workaround for a function that now works.

What changed, in the four that mattered to this port:

| Was banned | Now |
|---|---|
| `aksl_atoi` / `_atol` / `_atoll` / `_atof` | Every one takes a `dest` pointer and raises `AKERR_VALUE` on no digits or trailing junk, `ERANGE` on overflow — exactly the contract this section demanded |
| `aksl_list_append` / `_iterate` | Append no longer truncates to two nodes; iterate no longer skips the first half |
| `aksl_tree_iterate` | `AKERR_ITERATOR_BREAK` stops the traversal |
| `aksl_realpath` | Rewritten; no longer reads uninitialised memory on its error path |

Two signature changes reach this repository. `aksl_fread` and `aksl_fwrite` now take a
required `size_t *nmemb_out` and report a short transfer as `AKERR_IO` instead of a silent
success — so a `DSAVE` onto a full disk is now an error a program sees, where before it
reported nothing. `src/runtime_commands.c` passes the count and discards it, which is correct:
the library does the noticing now.

**`src/convert.c` is gone.** It existed only because `aksl_ato*` could not report a conversion
failure, and its own note said what to do when that changed: *"When it grows it, delete
`src/convert.c` and switch the call sites over."* That is done. Six call sites now go straight
to the library — `newLiteralInt` and `newLiteralFloat` in `src/grammar.c`, the line number in
`src/scanner.c`, `FunctionVAL` in `src/runtime_functions.c`, `INPUT` in
`src/runtime_commands.c`, and `GSHAPE`'s handle in `src/runtime_graphics.c`.

Three things that fell out of it, recorded because each was checked rather than assumed:

- **`aksl_strtoll(str, NULL, base, &dest)` is the exact replacement**, not `aksl_atoll`, wherever
  a base is involved. The `ato*` forms are base 10; `src/grammar.c` picks base 8 or 16 from the
  lexeme's prefix. A `NULL` endptr is what makes trailing junk an error rather than a stopping
  point, and that is the whole contract this port needs.
- **The raised status changed** from `AKBASIC_ERR_VALUE` to `AKERR_VALUE`, and the message text
  with it — `VAL("garbage")` now says `no digits in "garbage"`. §1.8 makes message text part of
  the acceptance contract, so this was checked against the corpus first: **no golden file
  contained a conversion message**, which is also why §1.9 used to ask for one. Two now exist,
  `tests/language/numeric/val_refuses_garbage` and `octal_literal`, so the next change to that
  text has to move a golden file.
- **`tests/convert.c` became `tests/numeric_contract.c`.** The assertions did not become
  worthless when the wrapper went away — they became assertions about a contract this port
  depends on and no longer owns, which is worth pinning exactly because a regression in it would
  make `VAL("garbage")` return 0 silently. Same reasoning `libakstdlib`'s own
  `tests/test_status_registry.c` gives for pinning that it reserves no status range.

One caveat survives the upgrade unchanged: `aksl_strhash_djb2` still sign-extends `char`, so a
high-bit byte hashes differently from the `unsigned char` answer. BASIC identifiers are 7-bit
ASCII so the symbol tables cannot reach it — see §1.3, which is still accurate.

---

## 2. What exists — **the core port is complete and green**

Phases 0 through 6 of the original plan are done. The interpreter builds clean under
`-Wall -Wextra`, passes the reference's entire corpus, and passes under ASan and UBSan.

It *did* reproduce the reference byte for byte, and that claim is retired rather than broken:
§0.1 released it, and one case has since diverged deliberately (§6 item 16, listed in
`tests/reference/README.md`). Everything else still matches, which is worth knowing but is no
longer a gate.

```sh
cmake -S . -B build && cmake --build build --parallel
ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure          # 59/59
cmake -S . -B build-asan -DAKBASIC_SANITIZE=ON      # 59/59
cmake -S . -B build-cov  -DAKBASIC_COVERAGE=ON      # 92.3% line, 96.9% function
```

| Module | Source | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Symbol table | `src/symtab.c` | the five Go maps |
| Value | `src/value.c` | `basicvalue.go` |
| Variable | `src/variable.c` | `basicvariable.go` |
| Tokens and AST leaves | `src/grammar.c` | `basicgrammar.go` + `basicparser.go` |
| Dispatch table | `src/verbs.c` | the three reflection lookups |
| Scanner | `src/scanner.c` | `basicscanner.go` |
| Parser | `src/parser.c`, `src/parser_commands.c` | `basicparser*.go` |
| Environment | `src/environment.c` | `basicenvironment.go` |
| Runtime | `src/runtime.c` | `basicruntime.go` minus SDL |
| Verbs and functions | `src/runtime_commands.c`, `src/runtime_functions.c` | `basicruntime_{commands,functions}.go` |
| Text sink | `src/sink_stdio.c` | `basicruntime_graphics.go`'s stdout mirror |
| Stdio driver | `src/main.c` | `main.go` minus its SDL frontend |
| Embedding examples | `examples/embed.c`, `examples/hostvars.c` | *(new)* |

`akbasic_runtime_load(rt, source)` was added while writing the README's embedding
section: a host usually holds its script as a string and wants the sink reserved for output,
and the only path that existed — `AKBASIC_MODE_RUNSTREAM` reading through the sink's
`readline` — forces a game to point its output device at its source text. `examples/embed.c`
is the code the README quotes, built by every build and registered as a CTest case so a
signature change breaks the build rather than rotting the document.

**The acceptance suite is the reference's own corpus, checked in at `tests/reference/`.** All
41 `.bas` files are registered as individual CTest cases and byte-compared against their `.txt`
— including the trailing double newline on an error line (§1.8).

It was driven *in place* out of `deps/basicinterpret` until 2026-07-31, on the reasoning that
copying a submodule's corpus guarantees drift. That reasoning was sound and was overruled
deliberately: the Go dependency is being deprecated, and a build that cannot run its own
acceptance suite without cloning the implementation it replaced is not finished. The copy is
byte-identical to `basicinterpreter@d76162c`, and `tests/reference/README.md` records the
provenance, the cost of the drift nobody is watching for now, and the rule that those
expectations are never edited to suit this interpreter.

**Nothing in the build or the suite needs `deps/basicinterpret` any more**, and that is checked
rather than assumed — both configurations were configured, built and run from scratch with the
submodule moved out of the tree. The Commodore font moved too, to `assets/fonts/`, which was the
other thing tying the build to it; `assets/fonts/PROVENANCE.md` carries the licence question that
came with it.

Eighteen unit tests cover the modules the corpus cannot reach on its own.
`tests/known_reference_defects.c` is registered in `AKBASIC_KNOWN_FAILING_TESTS` and asserts
the **correct** contract for six of the defects in §6; when one is fixed CTest reports
"unexpectedly passed", which is the cue to split that assertion out and strike the item.

Two budget numbers moved during implementation and are worth knowing:
`AKBASIC_MAX_ARRAY_ELEMENTS` (1024) caps one array and `AKBASIC_MAX_ARRAY_VALUES` (4096) caps
all of them together, drawn from an `akbasic_ValuePool` the runtime owns. The reference had no
such ceiling because it called `make()`.

---


## 3. The akgl-backed sink, devices and standalone frontend — **done**

`-DAKBASIC_WITH_AKGL=ON` builds and its suite passes, and the build option now changes what
the executable *does*: an AKGL build of `basic` opens a window, draws BASIC output into it,
pumps SDL events, lets you type at it, and still puts every byte on stdout. Four adaptors in
the `akbasic_akgl` target, which is the only thing here that links SDL, are complete and
tested:

| File | Backs |
|---|---|
| `src/sink_akgl.c` | the §1.5 text sink, over `akgl_text_measure` and `akgl_text_rendertextat` |
| `src/graphics_akgl.c` | `akbasic_GraphicsBackend`, over `akgl_draw_*`, and the SSHAPE surface pool |
| `src/audio_akgl.c` | `akbasic_AudioBackend`, over `akgl_audio_*` |
| `src/input_akgl.c` | `akbasic_InputBackend`, over `akgl_controller_poll_key` |

The character grid comes from `akgl_text_measure(font, "A", &w, &h)` — the direct equivalent of
the `font.SizeUTF8("A")` at `basicruntime.go:96`, and the call this was blocked on until
42b60f7. Wrapping is done on the character grid rather than by handing SDL_ttf a `wraplength`,
because the cursor has to land somewhere definite: a program that `PRINT`s a long string and
then `PRINT`s again expects the second to start on the row after the first ended, and only the
code that placed the characters knows which row that is.

**The interpreter owns no window, renderer or event loop.** Every initializer takes something
the host already made. Each calls `akgl_error_init()` first: `akgl_game_init()` would have,
but we drive subsystems directly and never call it, and a code raised before that registration
carries no name into its stack trace. It is idempotent.

*Acceptance:* `tests/akgl_backends.c`, a 128x128 software renderer under the dummy video
driver read back with `SDL_RenderReadPixels` — the pattern `deps/libakgl/tests/draw.c`
established, which needs no display and no offscreen harness. Registered as the `akgl_backends`
CTest case, and only when `AKBASIC_WITH_AKGL` is on.

### The standalone frontend

The standalone executable is itself a host, and that half of the Go frontend is now ported —
`src/frontend_akgl.c`, in its own `akbasic_frontend` target. **The separation is in the build
graph and not only in a comment**: `akbasic` is the interpreter, `akbasic_akgl` is the four
adaptors that draw through somebody else's renderer, and `akbasic_frontend` is the one thing in
the repository that creates a window. A game embedding the interpreter links the first two and
not the third.

| Piece | Where |
|---|---|
| Window, renderer, font, the four adaptors | `akbasic_frontend_akgl_init()` |
| Sink and devices onto a runtime | `akbasic_frontend_akgl_attach()` |
| One frame: pump events, draw the text layer, present | `akbasic_frontend_akgl_pump()` |
| The bounded frame loop | `akbasic_frontend_akgl_drive()` |
| stdout mirror | `src/sink_tee.c`, in the *core* library |

Four things are worth knowing about how it came out.

1. **The stdout mirror is a sink, not a second write.** §1.5 made the sink boundary precisely
   so the interpreter would never carry the reference's hardcoded pair of calls, and §3 item 5
   said it again. `akbasic_sink_init_tee()` composes two sinks into one and takes `readline`
   from whichever of the two was named as the reader — which is the whole difference between
   the two modes: a program read from a file comes in through the stdio half, and typed lines
   come in through the akgl half's line editor. It lives in the core library and is tested
   there (`tests/sink_tee.c`), because composing two function-pointer records needs no SDL.

2. **The line editor borrows the host's loop a frame at a time.** `readline` has to wait for a
   typed line, and §1.6 forbids the library blocking — and a sink that sat on the keyboard with
   no way to pump events would deadlock the process on its first `INPUT`. So the host installs
   an `akbasic_AkglPump` with `akbasic_sink_akgl_set_pump()`, and the editor calls it between
   keystrokes. The loop is still the host's. `akbasic_frontend_akgl_pump()` has that exact
   signature and is installed as-is. Without a pump the sink reports EOF, which is what it did
   before and what a host that wants no editor still gets.

3. **The frame loop is bounded, and that is what makes the close button work.** 256 steps per
   frame (`AKBASIC_FRONTEND_STEPS_PER_FRAME`), then pump and present. `10 GOTO 10` under an
   unbounded `run()` would own the process forever; `tests/akgl_frontend.c` runs exactly that
   and asserts the window close ends it.

4. **The frame is not cleared.** The graphics verbs draw straight to the renderer rather than
   into a display list, so clearing would wipe every `DRAW` at the end of the frame it was
   issued in. The text layer is drawn over whatever is there, which is also how a C128 stacks
   its text plane on its bitmap plane.

*Acceptance:* two things, and the second one is the stronger.

- `tests/akgl_frontend.c`, registered as the `akgl_frontend` CTest case: a program run through
  the frontend under the dummy driver, asserting the mirrored stdout **byte for byte** and
  reading the renderer back to prove the same characters were drawn in the Commodore font;
  synthetic key events pushed into SDL's own queue and read back through the frontend's input
  backend, so every link the host owns is in the path; the line editor's fold to upper case,
  its backspace and its escape; a whole REPL session typed at the window and ended with a typed
  `QUIT`; and the window-close path.
- **The entire golden corpus is driven through the AKGL binary.** A `-DAKBASIC_WITH_AKGL=ON`
  build registers the same 41 upstream cases against the same executable, which now opens a
  window to run them, and all 41 still match byte for byte. That is a much broader statement
  than any hand-written frontend test: the SDL path changes no observable output anywhere in
  the corpus.

Three `no_device.bas` local cases are **deliberately not registered** in an AKGL build. Their
premise is a driver that was given no devices, which is true of the stdio driver and
deliberately false of this one. The refusal path they cover is asserted directly against the
backend records in `tests/devices.c`, which both configurations build.

**Manual check against a real display, 2026-07-31.** The dummy driver cannot prove presentation,
so `build-akgl/basic` was run against X display `:0` on a program that prints a line, draws a
`BOX` and then loops. `xwininfo` found a real 800x600 window titled `BASIC`; the window was
captured with `import` and measured: the first text row carries glyph pixels (mean 65/255), the
box's left edge at x=100 is a solid white line (mean 255), the box interior is black — it
outlines rather than fills — and an empty corner is black. stdout carried `HELLO WORLD` at the
same time. `QUIT` exits cleanly with status 0.

**The typing half is no longer manual, and it is no longer a gap.** It used to read "somebody
should type at it once", because no key-synthesis tool was installed. `xdotool` now is, and
`tests/akgl_typing.sh` is registered as the `akgl_typing` CTest case: it starts the driver under
a pty, waits for the window with `xdotool search --sync`, gives it keyboard focus, types a
program containing a **string literal** and a **lower-case** one, and polls the mirrored stdout
for what they print.

That case earns its keep twice over. It is the only test that covers the path *upstream* of SDL
— X11 → SDL composition → libakgl's ring → the editor — and everything else synthesises SDL
events, which is precisely how the missing `SDL_StartTextInput()` shipped with a green suite.
Confirmed by reverting both halves of that fix and watching it fail with the same symptom that
was reported: `READY`, and nothing after it.

It needs a real X server, a window manager and `xdotool`, and it steals keyboard focus for about
fifteen seconds. Absent any of those it reports CTest `Skipped` rather than failing, which is
what it does in CI. `AKBASIC_SKIP_INTERACTIVE=1` skips it deliberately.

### The five things that had to be worked around — **all gone**

Every one was filed against `libakgl` and every one is resolved in its 0.3.0. What is left here
is the note that they existed, because the pattern is the point: file it upstream, comment the
workaround at its site with the words "filed upstream", delete it when it lands.

| Was | Resolved by |
|---|---|
| An embedded `libakgl` required its vendored SDL, SDL_image, SDL_mixer, SDL_ttf and jansson to be *installed*, so our `CMakeLists.txt` declared all five by hand first | It adds them whether or not it is top-level |
| `akgl/controller.h` did not compile on its own — it used `akgl_Actor *` and included nothing that declared it | It includes `<akgl/actor.h>` |
| There was no way to bind a 2D backend to a renderer you already had, so the six vtable pointers were assigned by hand in two files | `akgl_render_bind2d()` |
| `akgl_text_rendertextat()` dereferenced an unset `draw_texture`, so the first `PRINT` through an unbound backend segfaulted | It checks, and reports `AKERR_NULLPOINTER` like the draw entry points |
| `SOUND`'s frequency sweep had no equivalent and was refused | `akgl_audio_sweep()` |

**0.3.0 also arrived with a regression that this repository is the one that found**, because it
is the only consumer that embeds `libakgl` alongside other projects: the commit that made the
vendored dependencies unconditional also made its `add_test()` shadow unconditional, and CMake
chains command overrides exactly one level deep. Two projects in one tree cannot both shadow
`add_test` — the second rebinds `_add_test` to the first and the builtin becomes unreachable to
everybody, so our own registrations recursed to CMake's depth limit. Fixed upstream by putting
the top-level guard back; filed as `libakgl` defect 27, with the two-line CMake program that
demonstrates the one-level limit.

### Still missing from the sink

Nothing that blocks a verb, and as of `libakgl` 0.3.0 nothing that blocks a *character* either.
The ring now carries the composed UTF-8 text SDL worked out from each keystroke, so the editor
takes that in preference to the keycode and shifted characters, keyboard layouts, compose keys
and dead keys all work. **A double quote can be typed, so a BASIC string literal can be typed**,
which was the sharp end of the old limitation — it used to mean a program with a string in it
had to be passed on the command line. Letters are no longer folded to upper case, because there
is no longer any reason to.

**The host has to turn text input on**, and forgetting to is how this broke once. SDL3 has it
off by default and per-window, so it is `akbasic_frontend_akgl_init()` that calls
`SDL_StartTextInput()` — `akgl/controller.h` says as much. Without it SDL emits no
`SDL_EVENT_TEXT_INPUT` at all, every keystroke reaches the ring with an empty `text`, and an
editor that reads that as "not a character" is silently dead: nothing echoes in the window, and
nothing reaches stdout either, because `RUN` can never be typed.

The editor therefore **falls back to the keycode** when a keystroke carries no composed text,
folded to upper case. A worse keyboard is a great deal better than no keyboard, and it means a
host that embeds these adaptors and forgets `SDL_StartTextInput()` gets a usable editor rather
than a dead one. Both halves are asserted in `tests/akgl_frontend.c`, and both were checked by
reverting each in turn and watching the test fail.

Worth knowing about the test suite that missed this: every other keyboard test pushes
`SDL_EVENT_TEXT_INPUT` into SDL's queue by hand, which is what a real keyboard produces — *once
text input has been started*. Synthesising the end of a chain cannot test the beginning of it.
The new test asserts `SDL_TextInputActive()` directly for that reason, and the whole frontend
suite has been run against a real X11 window as well as the dummy driver.

One limit remains, and it is a choice rather than a gap:

- **No cursor movement within a line.** Backspace and escape only. The arrow keys stay in the
  ring for a script's own `GET` loop, which is the more valuable use of them.

A non-ASCII character is accepted by the keyboard and then dropped rather than stored, which is
§1.2 rather than the editor: the grid is a byte per cell and a value's string is a fixed 256
bytes, so a multi-byte character has nowhere to go. Dropping it is honest where storing half of
it is not.

`WINDOW` and `KEY` in group E want a text-window rectangle and a function-key table on top of
this, which is ordinary work here rather than anything blocked.

---

## 4. Remaining work: language completion (goal 2)

The work queue is the "What Isn't Implemented" list in `deps/basicinterpret/README.md`.
Each verb is: table row (§1.1) → parse handler if it needs one → exec handler → unit test →
a new `.bas`/`.txt` pair. **Both** kinds of test; they answer different questions.

Order by what unblocks the most, and by what does not need `libakgl` to grow first:

| Group | Verbs | Blocked on |
|---|---|---|
| A. Structure | `DO`, `LOOP`, `WHILE`, `UNTIL`, `ON`, `BEGIN`, `BEND`, `END` | nothing — reuses `waitingForCommand` |
| ~~B. Housekeeping~~ | ~~`NEW`, `CLR`, `CONT`, `SWAP`, `TRON`, `TROFF`, `HELP`~~ | **done** — `src/runtime_housekeeping.c`, `tests/housekeeping_verbs.c` |
| B′. Housekeeping, deferred | `RESTORE`, `RENUMBER` | neither is small; see below |
| C. Errors | `TRAP`, `RESUME`, `ER`, `ERR` | needs a BASIC-visible error object |
| D. Strings/format | `USING`, `PUDEF`, `WIDTH`, `CHAR` | nothing |
| E. Console | `WINDOW`, `KEY`, `SLEEP`, `WAIT`, `TI` | the sink, or the clock `akbasic_runtime_settime()` now carries |
| F. Disk | `DOPEN`, `DCLOSE`, `APPEND`, `RECORD`, `HEADER`, `COLLECT`, `BACKUP`, `COPY`, `CONCAT`, `RENAME`, `SCRATCH`, `DIRECTORY`, `CATALOG`, `DCLEAR`, `DVERIFY`, `SAVE`, `LOAD`, `VERIFY`, `BLOAD`, `BSAVE`, `BOOT` | `aksl_f*` only; no new akgl |
| ~~G. Graphics~~ | ~~`GRAPHIC`, `DRAW`, `BOX`, `CIRCLE`, `PAINT`, `COLOR`, `SCALE`, `SSHAPE`, `GSHAPE`, `LOCATE`~~ | **done** — `src/runtime_graphics.c`, `tests/graphics_verbs.c` |
| H. Sprites | `SPRITE`, `MOVSPR`, `SPRCOLOR`, `SPRDEF`, `SPRSAV`, `COLLISION` | `libakgl` sprite/actor API — check before filing |
| ~~I. Audio~~ | ~~`PLAY`, `SOUND`, `ENVELOPE`, `VOL`, `TEMPO`~~ | **done** — `src/runtime_audio.c`, `src/play.c`, `tests/audio_verbs.c` |
| I′. Audio, still gapped | `FILTER`, `SOUND`'s sweep arguments | `libakgl` has neither; both refused with `AKBASIC_ERR_DEVICE`, both filed in §7 |
| ~~E′. Console input~~ | ~~`GET`, `GETKEY`, `SCNCLR`~~ | **done** — `src/runtime_input.c`, `tests/input_verbs.c` |
| J. Machine | `SYS`, `FETCH`, `STASH`, `POKE`/`PEEK` variants | nothing |

**`RESTORE` and `RENUMBER` are deferred, and neither is a small job.**

- **`RESTORE` needs a DATA pointer, and there isn't one.** `READ` does not read: it declares
  that the *next* `DATA` line reached in execution order should fill its identifiers, and skips
  forward until one turns up (`akbasic_cmd_read`, ported faithfully). There is no cursor into a
  list of `DATA` items, so there is nothing for `RESTORE` to reset. Implementing it honestly
  means implementing the pointer, which is worth doing on its own merits, because the current
  arrangement has a defect the corpus does not catch: **a `DATA` line that appears *before* its
  `READ` is never found**, so `10 DATA 1,2` / `20 READ A#` runs off the end of the program in
  silence, and a second `READ` re-reads the same line rather than continuing. The fix is a
  pre-scan of every `DATA` statement into a flat list plus a read cursor, at which point
  `RESTORE [line]` is three lines. Its own commit, with the golden cases the change would need.
- **`RENUMBER` has to rewrite references or it is worse than useless.** Moving lines is easy —
  source is filed under its line number in `source[]`. Rewriting every `GOTO`, `GOSUB`, `THEN`,
  `ELSE`, `RUN` and `LIST` target to match is the job, and doing it on source text means
  distinguishing a line number from a digit inside a string literal. Refusing it is better than
  a `RENUMBER` that silently breaks every branch in the program.

`LOCATE` used to appear in both E and G. It belongs to G alone: in BASIC 7.0 `LOCATE` moves the
*graphics* pixel cursor that `DRAW` starts from, and the text cursor verb is `CHAR`, which is
already in group D.

**Out of scope, and staying that way** — the reference marks these as incompatible with a
modern PC and that reasoning stands: `BANK` (no bank switching), `FAST` (irrelevant CPU speed
control), `MONITOR` (no machine-language monitor).

Also on the queue, from the reference's own defect list:

- ~~**Multiple statements per line**~~ **Done.** `akbasic_parser_parse()` consumes a run of
  `COLON` tokens before each statement and hands the caller a NULL leaf when nothing followed
  them, which is how an empty statement — a trailing separator, or `::` — stays legal rather
  than becoming an error. `tests/parser_commands.c` counts statements per line;
  `tests/language/statements/multiple_per_line.bas` asserts what actually runs.

  **One thing about it needed a decision rather than a transcription**, and it is recorded as
  deviation 31 in §5: BASIC 7.0 scopes everything after `THEN` to the condition, so
  `IF C THEN A : B` must run neither `A` nor `B` when `C` is false. The parser takes exactly one
  statement per arm, so the rest of the line reaches the statement loop as ordinary statements
  and the branch has to tell the loop whether to run them.

  **A known limitation, not a defect:** a whole `FOR`/`NEXT` on one line
  (`FOR I# = 1 TO 3 : PRINT I# : NEXT I#`) does not loop. The block structure is the
  reference's `waitingForCommand` model (§1.6), which skips forward *by source line* to the verb
  it is waiting for, so a `NEXT` on the same line as its `FOR` is never reached. Fixing it means
  restructuring control flow to work on statements rather than lines, which is a deliberate
  piece of work and wants its own commit. Group A's `DO`/`LOOP` will meet the same wall.
- **Array references in parameter lists** (`READ A$(0), B#`) currently fail to parse. This is
  the *same collision* §6 item 13 was, one field along: an identifier keeps its subscript list
  on `.right`, which is also where an argument list chains its arguments. That item was fixed by
  moving a unary leaf's operand to `.left`; the same move very likely works here, since an
  identifier leaf has no other use for the field either. Fix in `akbasic_parser_primary` and
  `akbasic_leaf_first_subscript`.

---

## 5. Deliberate deviations from the reference

Keep this list current. Most of these change structure without changing observable output;
the ones that *do* change output say so and carry the golden file they moved.

The bar has dropped since this list was started. It used to be "defensible against the golden
suite", because matching the Go implementation byte for byte was goal 1's headline claim. That
implementation is now deprecated (§0.1), so the bar is the ordinary one: defensible on its own
merits, recorded here, and tested.

1. Reflection → static dispatch table (§1.1).
2. Go maps → fixed open-addressed tables (§1.3).
3. Unbounded `new(BasicEnvironment)` → pool with release (§1.4).
4. Hardcoded stdout+SDL mirror → text sink backend (§1.5).
5. `run()` owns the process → `step()` / bounded `run()` (§1.6).
6. `panic()` → `FAIL_RETURN`; no library call terminates the process (§1.6).
7. `debug.PrintStack()` on parse error → the `akerr` stack trace only (§3.1 of the original plan).
8. `BasicEnvironment.eval_clone_identifiers` deleted as dead state (§4.2 of the original plan).
9. `BasicValue.name` and `BasicEnvironment.update()` deleted as dead: nothing ever writes the
   field a non-empty string, and `update()` — its only reader — has no callers.
10. The `DEF`-statement bootstrap is gone. The reference declares every builtin by *running a
    BASIC program of `DEF` lines through the interpreter* at startup and then nulling out the
    expressions (`basicruntime_functions.go:14`); here a builtin's name, arity and handler are
    a row in the dispatch table, and `MOD`, `SPC` and `STR` are ordinary native handlers. This
    removes the need to run the interpreter before the interpreter is ready.
11. Undefined behaviour the reference reaches by a defined route is refused rather than
    inherited: a shift count outside 0..63, a negative string multiplier, and integer division
    by zero all raise. Go defines all three (or panics); C does not. No golden case exercises
    any of them, so observable behaviour is unchanged.
12. `CommandEXIT` clears the pending `NEXT` wait before popping. The reference does not, which
    leaves the parent waiting for a `NEXT` that never arrives (§6 item 8) — in C that is a hang
    rather than a misbehaviour, and no golden case depends on it.

### Deviations in the verbs the reference never implemented

Items 1–12 above are deviations *from ported code*. These are deviations from **Commodore
BASIC 7.0**, in verbs the reference lists as unimplemented and which therefore had no Go
behaviour to port. They matter to somebody typing in a listing out of a C128 manual.

13. **Hardware verbs reach a device through a backend record, and refuse when there is none.**
    `akbasic_GraphicsBackend`, `_AudioBackend` and `_InputBackend` are records of function
    pointers on the runtime; all three may be `NULL`, which is what the current stdio-only
    standalone driver gives them. That is correct for a default build and unfinished for an
    `AKBASIC_WITH_AKGL` build; see §3. A verb that needs a device it was not given raises
    `AKBASIC_ERR_DEVICE` naming itself. `COLOR`, `LOCATE`, `SCALE`, `ENVELOPE`, `TEMPO` and
    `VOL` deliberately do *not* require one — they change interpreter state, so a program can
    configure itself before the host lends it a renderer.

14. **`CIRCLE` is a polygon, always.** BASIC 7.0's `CIRCLE` takes two radii, a start and end
    angle, a rotation and a degree increment, which makes it an inc-degree polygon by
    definition. `akgl_draw_circle` exists and is deliberately **not** used: it draws one
    radius, full sweep, unrotated, so it could serve only the case where every optional
    argument is defaulted — and a shape that changed character depending on whether the two
    radii happened to be equal is worse than one that is uniformly a polygon.

15. **`SSHAPE` stores a handle in the string, not the pixels.** A real C128 packs the
    region's bitmap into the string variable. Here a value's string is a fixed 256 bytes
    (§1.2) and a saved region is a device surface, so the variable gets `SHAPE:<n>` and the
    surface stays in a fixed pool on the backend. `GSHAPE` accepts only a string carrying that
    prefix, so a hand-written one is refused rather than pasting an unrelated slot. **What
    this costs:** a shape cannot be written to disk, cannot be concatenated, and `LEN` of it
    is not its size. Nothing in BASIC does any of those to a shape string except a program
    deliberately poking at it.

16. **`BOX` fills on a negative angle rather than on a seventh argument.** 7.0's last
    argument selects outline or fill and sits *after* the rotation, which would make a filled
    box a seven-argument call. That is filed rather than implemented; today a rotation of zero
    outlines through the renderer's rectangle and any other rotation draws four lines.

17. **`GRAPHIC` records its mode but honours only one consequence of it.** 7.0's five modes
    differ in bitmap resolution and in whether the bottom of the screen stays text. Neither
    means anything against a host's renderer, whose size the interpreter does not know and
    does not own. The mode is stored, an out-of-range one is refused because that is a typo
    worth catching, and the one observable rule is that mode 0 is text.

18. **Coordinates reaching a backend are BASIC's 320x200 space, and scaling to the window is
    the host's job.** The interpreter cannot ask the renderer how big it is without owning it.
    `SCALE` maps user coordinates onto that space; with `SCALE` off they pass through.

19. **`PLAY` does not block.** On a C128 `PLAY` holds the program until the last note ends.
    §1.6 forbids that outright, so `PLAY` parses the string into a fixed queue and returns;
    `akbasic_runtime_step()` releases one note at a time against whatever time the host last
    passed to `akbasic_runtime_settime()`. **What this changes for a program:** the statement
    after a `PLAY` runs immediately rather than a bar later, so a listing that relied on `PLAY`
    for timing will race ahead. A program that wants to wait should test the queue rather than
    assume the verb waits for it.

20. **The host owns the clock, and an unset clock rushes the music.** The library reads no
    clock — it owns no loop and must not block. A host calls `akbasic_runtime_settime()` once a
    frame; the standalone driver calls it every step off `CLOCK_MONOTONIC`. Left unset it reads
    zero forever, so every duration has already expired and the queue drains as fast as
    `step()` is called. Audible, deterministic, and never a hang, which is the right way for
    that to fail.

21. **`PLAY`'s `M` (measure) is a no-op, and `SOUND`'s sweep runs once rather than
    oscillating.** `M` synchronises the three voices on a C128; with one sequential queue there
    is nothing to synchronise, and a listing full of them should still play, so it is accepted
    and ignored.

    The sweep *used* to be refused outright — there was no `akgl_audio_*` equivalent and faking
    one would have tied audible pitch to how often the host calls us. `libakgl` 0.3.0 added
    `akgl_audio_sweep()` and `SOUND voice, freq, dur, dir, min, step` now reaches it. What does
    not survive is `dir` 3, "oscillate": `akgl_audio_sweep` runs one pass between two endpoints,
    and a real oscillation needs the mixer to turn around at them. **What this changes for a
    program:** a `dir` 3 siren rises or falls once instead of warbling. `dir` 1 and 2 are exact,
    and so is the direction — both the SID and `akgl_audio_sweep` take it from which endpoint is
    higher, so a `min` above the starting frequency rises whatever `dir` says.

    `step` is converted as a *delta* rather than a position: it is a register increment, and the
    register-to-hertz table maps positions, so it goes across as the distance between register 0
    and register `step`. A step that converts to zero would never arrive and is raised to one
    hertz, which is the smallest move that still gets there.

    A backend whose record has no `sweep` — a host written against `libakgl` 0.2.0 — still
    refuses a swept note with `AKBASIC_ERR_DEVICE` and plays a held one normally.
    `tests/audio_verbs.c` asserts both halves.

22. **`TEMPO`'s constant is a calibration choice, not a transcription.** BASIC 7.0 documents
    `TEMPO` as a relative duration from 1 to 255 defaulting to 8, and does not publish what a
    whole note actually lasts. `src/audio_tables.c` uses 16000 ms at `TEMPO` 1, which puts a
    default-tempo quarter note at 500 ms — 120 beats per minute. If the real constant turns
    up, that is the one line to change.

23. **`GETKEY` holds the step loop rather than blocking.** A C128 sits on the keyboard inside
    `GETKEY` until somebody types. §1.6 forbids the library blocking, so the verb sets a flag
    and `akbasic_runtime_step()` declines to advance the program until a key arrives. Every
    step still returns and a bounded `akbasic_runtime_run()` still comes back, so a host keeps
    its frame rate; the program simply does not move past the `GETKEY`, which is the part a
    program author cares about. The `PLAY` queue is serviced *before* this check on purpose —
    music should keep playing while a program waits for a keypress. Withdrawing the input
    device while a `GETKEY` is holding releases it rather than wedging the script forever.

24. **`GET` and `GETKEY` into a numeric variable yield the key code.** BASIC 7.0's `GET` takes
    a string variable. Accepting an integer one as well, and giving it the raw code, is what a
    program testing for cursor or function keys needs and costs nothing. No key is code zero,
    matching what a C128 reports. A float variable is refused: it is neither a character nor a
    code.

### Deviations in the standalone frontend

Items 1–12 are deviations from ported interpreter code and 13–24 from BASIC 7.0. These four are
deviations from the reference's *program*: `main.go` and the SDL half of
`basicruntime_graphics.go`.

25. **The frame loop is bounded and the reference's is not.** Go's `run()` is a `for {}` that
    owns the process until `MODE_QUIT` (`basicruntime.go:682`), which is why the reference's
    window never answers its close button. Here the driver runs
    `AKBASIC_FRONTEND_STEPS_PER_FRAME` steps, pumps, presents, and goes round again. **What
    this changes for a program:** nothing observable — a bounded run reproduces an unbounded one
    exactly, and the whole golden corpus is driven through this loop to prove it. What it
    changes for a *user* is that the window closes when asked.

26. **The text layer repaints every row it owns, every frame.** Not just the rows that changed.

    That was tried — a `drawn[]` array marking which rows had carried glyphs, so an untouched
    row could be skipped — and it is **wrong on real hardware**. `SDL_RenderPresent` swaps
    buffers, so a frame does not inherit the frame before it; it inherits the one *two* back,
    and on some backends something undefined. A row erased once is clean in one buffer and still
    dirty in the other, and presenting alternates between them.

    That is what a backspace across a line wrap looked like: the first character of the wrapped
    tail flickering in and out forever after the rest had gone. It reproduces on X11 and never
    under the dummy driver or a software renderer, which is exactly why the suite was green
    through two rounds of fixing it. `tests/akgl_frontend.c` now paints stale pixels by hand —
    which is what a swapped-in buffer hands back — so the case is covered without needing real
    hardware.

    There is no cheaper correct answer available: a frame either owns every pixel it presents or
    it inherits pixels it cannot reason about.

    **What this costs, and it is more than it used to.** The host still does not call
    `SDL_RenderClear`, but the text area is now repainted in full every frame, so anything a
    graphics verb drew underneath it is erased every frame rather than only where text lands. In
    the standalone driver the text area is the whole window, so `DRAW` and `PRINT` no longer
    coexist there.

    **And the same buffer swap means the graphics verbs were never reliable across frames
    anyway**, which is worth stating plainly rather than leaving as a surprise: a one-shot `DRAW`
    lands in one buffer and the next present shows the other. It looked fine in a single
    screenshot and would have flickered exactly as the text did. Making graphics survive needs a
    persistent surface the frame is composited from, which is real work and its own commit —
    filed here rather than half-done.

27. **The cursor is a blinking block.** The reference draws an underscore glyph (`drawCursor`,
    `basicruntime_graphics.go:33`), and so did this until the underscore turned out to sit
    *under* the text being typed and make it hard to read. A block occupies the cell after the
    text instead of the space beneath it.

    Half a second per blink (`AKBASIC_SINK_CURSOR_BLINK_MS`), which is about a Commodore's and
    slow enough to read under. `akbasic_AkglSink.cursorperiodms` set to zero holds it solid,
    which is what makes a frame deterministic for a test.

    Two details that are decisions rather than accidents. The clock is **SDL's**, not the
    host's: everywhere else the host owns the clock because the library owns no loop and must
    not block, but this is an adaptor that already links SDL and threading a timestamp through
    the sink interface to animate a cursor would be a poor trade. And a line that exactly fills
    a row leaves the cursor one column past the end, because `putchar_at` wraps only when the
    next character arrives — the cursor is drawn at the start of the next row instead, which is
    where the next character will actually land and where a C128 puts it.

28. **The window is closed by the host, and that is not `QUIT`.** Closing the window stops the
    frontend and leaves `obj->mode` alone; it does not set `AKBASIC_MODE_QUIT`. The distinction
    is invisible to the standalone program, which exits either way, and load-bearing for an
    embedding host: a game that closes its own window has not decided that the script is
    finished, and a script that ran `QUIT` has. `tests/akgl_frontend.c` asserts both halves.

29. **Piped input still works in an AKGL build.** With a terminal on stdin the window is the
    console and lines come from its editor; piped or redirected, they come from the pipe. This
    is not in the reference, which always reads `os.Stdin` in REPL mode. It exists so
    `basic < program.bas` behaves the same in both builds — and so the golden corpus can be
    driven through the SDL binary, which is where most of the frontend's real coverage comes
    from.

### Deviations that change what a program is allowed to do

30. **A verb name with a type suffix is not a variable name.** `PRINT$ = 1` is refused where
    the reference accepts it, because its reserved-word check searched the keyword tables with
    the suffix still attached and therefore never matched (§6 item 16). A real C128 refuses it
    too, so this is the reference being wrong rather than this interpreter being strict.

    **What it costs a program:** a listing that used `INPUT$`, `LEN#` or `GOTO%` as a variable
    stops parsing, and the fix is to rename the variable. One case in the reference's own corpus
    did exactly that; see `tests/reference/README.md`.

### Deviations in statement separation

31. **A branch decides who owns the rest of its line.** BASIC 7.0 scopes every statement after
    `THEN` to the condition, and the reference has no opinion on the matter because it never
    consumed the `COLON` token at all. The parser here takes exactly one statement for each arm,
    so the rest of the line arrives at the statement loop as ordinary top-level statements and
    something has to say whether to run them. The `BRANCH` case in
    `akbasic_runtime_evaluate()` sets `runtime->skiprestofline`, and the two statement loops
    stop on it.

    **The rule is not "skip when false"**, which is the reason this is written down:

    | Line | Condition | What runs |
    |---|---|---|
    | `IF C THEN A : B` | true | `A`, `B` |
    | `IF C THEN A : B` | false | nothing |
    | `IF C THEN A ELSE B : D` | true | `A` |
    | `IF C THEN A ELSE B : D` | false | `B`, `D` |

    The remainder always belongs to whichever arm was written *last*, so it is skipped exactly
    when that arm is the one not taken — with an `ELSE` the last arm is `ELSE`, without one it
    is `THEN`. That is one line of code and it reads as an oddity without the table above it.

---

## 6. Reference defects — **fix them; fidelity is no longer a reason not to**

These are real bugs in `deps/basicinterpret`, reproduced faithfully during the port.

**The rule that governed this section is gone.** It used to read "port the behaviour first so
the golden suite passes and the port is provably faithful, then fix each one deliberately" —
and faithfulness was the reason several of these are still here. The Go implementation is
deprecated and will not be updated (§0.1), so there is no longer anything to be faithful *to*.
Each of these is now an ordinary defect, to be judged on whether the fix is right rather than on
whether it matches.

What has not changed is the working method: one fix per commit, with a test that asserts the
correct contract, and a golden file moved in the same commit if the fix changes output.
`AKBASIC_KNOWN_FAILING_TESTS` is empty now and is kept declared for the next defect that has to
be reproduced before it can be fixed.

1. **`basicvariable.go:176`** — `toString()` tests `len(self.values) == 0` and then indexes
   `self.values[0]`. Inverted condition; on an empty variable it panics, and on a non-empty one
   it returns the "not implemented for arrays" string. *Consequence:* `PRINT` of a scalar
   through this path is wrong. Fix: `if ( count == 1 )`.
2. **`basicvariable.go:108`** — `setBoolean` builds a value with `valuetype: TYPE_STRING`.
   *Consequence:* a boolean stored in a variable reads back as a string with an empty
   `stringval`. Fix: `TYPE_BOOLEAN`.
3. **`basicenvironment.go:157`** — `stopWaiting(command)` ignores `command` and clears the
   wait unconditionally. *Consequence:* an inner block can clear an outer block's wait. Fix:
   compare before clearing, and error on a mismatch.
4. **`basicvalue.go:181`** — `mathPlus` mutates `self` in place when `self.mutable` is true,
   while every other operator always clones. *Consequence:* `A# + 1` can modify `A#` depending
   on where the value came from. This one is high blast radius; it interacts with
   `eval_clone_identifiers` and with `CommandNEXT`'s increment
   (`basicruntime_commands.go:663`), which **relies** on the mutation. Do not fix it before
   `FOR`/`NEXT` has full test coverage.
5. **`basicvalue.go:191` and siblings** — every binary operator adds both of the right-hand
   operand's numeric fields: `rval.intval + int64(rval.floatval)`. Works only because the
   unused field is always zero. *Consequence:* none today; it is a landmine for any future
   value that carries both.
6. **`basicvalue.go`, all comparisons** — `dest` is cloned from `self`, so the resulting
   boolean inherits `self.name`. *Consequence:* a comparison result can be written back to the
   wrong variable through `environment.update()`.
7. **`basicruntime_commands.go:484`** — `CommandIF` walks `expr.right` to the end of the chain
   looking for a `THEN` command, then dereferences `expr.right` after the loop guaranteed it
   is `nil`. *Consequence:* the "Malformed IF statement" check is unreachable and nested
   `IF ... THEN ... ELSE` is unverified.
8. **`basicruntime_commands.go:669`** — `CommandEXIT` pops the environment without
   `stopWaiting`, leaving the parent waiting on a `NEXT` that will never come.
9. **`basicruntime.go:149`** — `newVariable()` and `BasicRuntime.variables[MAX_VARIABLES]` are
   dead; variables live in the environment's map. Do not port them.
10. ~~**`basicgrammar.go:224`** — `newLiteralInt` selects base 8 whenever the lexeme starts
    with `0`.~~ **Fixed.** Base 10 unless prefixed `0x`; a leading zero in a listing is padding,
    not a radix. `PRINT 010` prints 10 and `PRINT 08` parses. Nothing in the upstream corpus
    had a leading-zero literal, which is why nothing there noticed. Regression tests in
    `tests/grammar_leaves.c` and `tests/language/numeric/octal_literal.bas`, which was rewritten
    from pinning the defect to pinning the fix.
11. **`basicruntime.go:121` / `basicparser_commands.go:124`** — environments are never freed.
    Addressed structurally by §1.4; no separate fix needed, but the C pool **will** exhaust
    where Go merely leaked, so `tests/environment_scope.c`'s exhaustion assertion matters.

### Found during the port

Five more, none of which the reference's own corpus catches. **Four are now fixed**, each with
a regression test in the suite that pinned it; the fifth is described below and is not a coding
question.

12. ~~**`basicparser.go:329` — `subtraction()` returns after one operator where `addition()`
    loops.**~~ **Fixed.** `1 - 2 - 3` computed `1 - 2` and abandoned the rest of the line; the
    remaining `- 3` was left in the token stream, picked up by the statement loop as a second
    statement, evaluated and discarded. A wrong answer, silently, which made this the
    highest-impact item on the list. `exponent()` has the identical shape — a `for` loop with a
    `return` inside it, in both the reference and the port — so `2 ^ 3 ^ 2` had it too. Both
    now fold left, which is what a C128 does with a run of same-precedence operators.
    Regression tests in `tests/parser_expressions.c`.

    Worth recording for whoever reads the reference next: `exponent()` there is
    `for self.match(CARAT) { ... return expr, nil }` (`basicparser.go:519-539`), so the loop is
    a loop in shape only. `subtraction()` is the same at `:357-377`. Neither is a
    transcription slip in the port.

13. ~~**`basicparser.go:565` — a unary-minus argument inflates a function's arity count.**~~
    **Fixed**, and the fix is structural rather than a smarter counter. The counter walked
    `.right`, which is where a unary leaf keeps its operand *and* where an argument list chains
    its arguments; the two meanings were indistinguishable, so `ABS(-9)` counted as two
    arguments and was refused with "function ABS takes 1 arguments, received 2". No builtin
    could be called with a negative literal at all. The corpus hid it — `sgn.bas` assigns `-1`
    to a variable first.

    **A unary leaf's operand now hangs off `.left`.** A unary leaf had no other use for that
    field, so the two meanings separate for the cost of one nobody was using — and counting
    then needs no special case at all. That also fixes the half of the defect the original
    entry did not mention: chaining the *next* argument through `.right` overwrote the operand,
    so `MOD(-7, 3)` destroyed its own first argument. Three readers moved (`src/runtime.c`,
    `src/grammar.c`'s renderer, `src/runtime_commands.c`'s `LIST` range parser) and that is the
    whole change. Regression tests in `tests/runtime_evaluate.c`, both halves.

    **The same collision remains for array subscripts**, which is why §4 still lists
    "array references in parameter lists" as outstanding: an identifier keeps its subscript
    list on `.right` too. The same move — onto `.left` — is very likely the fix, and it is not
    made here because it wants its own commit and its own tests.

14. ~~**`basicscanner.go:272` — `matchNextChar` returns without setting a token type when it
    cannot peek past the end of the line.**~~ **Fixed.** A comparison operator in the final
    column was silently dropped: `A# =` produced one token, not two, and the parse error that
    followed pointed somewhere else entirely. `falsetype` is now set before returning on the
    peek failure. Regression tests in `tests/scanner_tokens.c`, for `=`, `<` and `>`.

15. ~~**`basicscanner.go:318` — hex literals do not survive the scanner.**~~ **Fixed.**
    `matchNumber` let `x` through but not the hex digits after it, so `0xff` lexed as `0x`
    followed by an identifier `ff`, the base-16 branch in `newLiteralInt` was unreachable, and
    the README's hex support did not exist. Once the `x` is seen the run continues over hex
    digits. Accepted anywhere in a number run rather than only after a leading `0`, which is
    the reference's rule and is worth keeping: it is what makes `1x2` one malformed token that
    the line-number conversion diagnoses by name. Regression tests in `tests/scanner_tokens.c`
    and `tests/language/numeric/octal_literal.bas`.

16. ~~**`basicscanner.go:349` — the "Reserved word in variable name" check never fires.**~~
    **Fixed**, and it is the item §0.1 unblocked. The keyword tables are now searched on the
    *base* name with any type suffix stripped, so `PRINT$`, `LEN#` and `GOTO%` are refused as
    variable names and the reference's own diagnostic stops being dead code. A name that merely
    contains a verb — `PRINTER$` — is still fine, which is what says the check compares the
    whole base name rather than a prefix. Regression tests in `tests/scanner_tokens.c`.

    **It cost one golden case, exactly as predicted, and the cost turned out to be nothing.**
    The reference's `examples/strreverse.bas` names a variable `INPUT$`; the variable is renamed
    to `SOURCE$` in `tests/reference/`, the expectation is byte-for-byte unchanged — the program
    still prints `REVERSED: OLLEH` — and the case keeps every bit of its coverage. Recorded in
    `tests/reference/README.md`'s divergence table, which this is the first entry in.

    This item sat parked because the corpus was the acceptance contract and lived in a submodule
    this repository could not edit. Both premises are gone: the corpus is checked in, and
    matching the Go implementation is no longer a goal. Worth keeping the history, because it is
    a clean example of a fix that was correct all along and blocked entirely by a constraint
    that has since expired.

### Ours, not the reference's

17. ~~**A host cannot reliably create a script variable while a script is suspended.**~~
    **Fixed.** `akbasic_runtime_global(obj, name, dest)` walks `obj->environment` to the root
    and finds or creates there unconditionally. `README.md` and `examples/hostvars.c` both point
    at it now, and `tests/hostvars.c` asserts it: a global created from inside a `FOR` body and
    from inside a `GOSUB`, still readable by the script after the body pops, plus the
    seed-before / read-after path that always worked.

    This one was not inherited — it fell out of §1.4's environment pool meeting §1.6's bounded
    `run()`, a combination the reference never had because its `run()` never returned. Both
    failure modes were silent: a variable created through `akbasic_environment_get()` landed in
    the loop's scope and died with it, so the script read it correctly inside the loop and got
    `0` immediately after; and reaching for the root explicitly returned `NULL` through `dest`
    **without raising**, because that function only auto-creates when
    `obj->runtime->environment == obj`.

    Three things settled while doing it, each worth keeping:

    - **The design question §6 named has an answer.** Suspended inside a *user function's*
      scope, the root is still right and the walk still gets there: a funcdef's environment is
      initialized with the caller's as its parent (`akbasic_runtime_user_function`), so the
      chain terminates at the same root as any other.
    - **`akbasic_environment_create()` is the new half**, and it searches *only* the scope it
      is given — no walk in either direction. Walking up would find an outer variable and put
      the value somewhere other than where the caller asked for it.
    - **`akbasic_environment_get()` is unchanged.** Declining to create in a non-active scope is
      the right behaviour for what the interpreter uses it for; it is only wrong as a *host*
      API, which is why the answer was a new entry point rather than a change to that one.
      `tests/hostvars.c` asserts the old behaviour too, so a later "tidy-up" has to argue with a
      test.

---

## 7. Filing gaps against `libakgl`

When phase 7 or phase 8 needs something `libakgl` does not have, **stop and file it** in
`deps/libakgl/TODO.md` in that file's numbered prose style: what the BASIC verb requires, what
the `akgl_*` entry point should look like, and what tests would cover it. Growing `libakgl` to
serve the interpreter is a wanted outcome, not a detour.

**All ten gaps filed so far are closed upstream**, as of `libakgl` 0.3.0. Nothing here is
blocked on `libakgl`, and this repository carries no `libakgl` workarounds at all — the four
§3 used to list are deleted.

| Was blocking | Closed by |
|---|---|
| Text measurement (§3, the akgl sink) | `akgl_text_measure`, `akgl_text_measure_wrapped` |
| Immediate-mode drawing (§4 group G) | `akgl_draw_point`/`_line`/`_rect`/`_filled_rect`/`_circle`/`_flood_fill`/`_copy_region`/`_paste_region` |
| Audio (§4 group I) | `akgl_audio_init`/`_tone`/`_envelope`/`_waveform`/`_volume`/`_stop`/`_voice_active`/`_mix` |
| Console input (§4 group E) | `akgl_controller_poll_key`, `akgl_controller_flush_keys` |
| Vendored dependencies when embedded | added unconditionally, 0.3.0 |
| `controller.h` not self-contained | includes `<akgl/actor.h>`, 0.3.0 |
| Binding a 2D backend to an existing renderer | `akgl_render_bind2d()`, 0.3.0 |
| `akgl_text_rendertextat()` on an unbound backend | checked, 0.3.0 |
| `SOUND`'s frequency sweep (§5 item 21) | `akgl_audio_sweep()`, 0.3.0 |
| The line editor could not see Shift (§3) | `akgl_Keystroke` + `akgl_controller_poll_keystroke()`, 0.3.0 |

Three notes for whoever files the next one. The draw calls take an `akgl_RenderBackend *` as
their first argument rather than reaching for a global renderer, which fits the rule that the
interpreter draws through whatever renderer the host already initialized. The audio API is a
synthesised-voice one — `akgl_audio_tone(voice, hz, ms)` with a separate ADSR envelope — which
is the shape `PLAY` and `ENVELOPE` need, rather than the sample playback SDL3_mixer would have
given. And `akgl_controller_poll_key()` survives alongside the keystroke form on purpose: `GET`
and `GETKEY` still use it, because a script asking "was the up arrow pressed" wants a keycode
and would get the empty string from the other one.

**`FILTER` is the one verb still refused**, and it is not filed as a gap because upstream said
plainly what it would take: `akgl_audio_*` synthesises raw waveforms and mixes them, there is no
filter stage to configure, and SDL3 supplies no primitive to build one from. Until an
`akgl_audio_filter()` exists, `FILTER` is accepted by the parser and refused at execution with
`AKBASIC_ERR_DEVICE` rather than silently ignored — a program that asks for a low-pass and gets
an unfiltered square wave has been lied to.

**One thing went the other way**, and it is worth recording because it is the only defect this
project has ever sent upstream in a release it also consumed. 0.3.0's vendored-dependency fix
also made `libakgl`'s `add_test()` shadow unconditional. CMake chains command overrides exactly
one level deep, so two projects in one tree cannot both shadow it: the second rebinds
`_add_test` to the first and the builtin becomes unreachable to everyone, and this repository's
own test registrations recursed until CMake stopped at depth 1000. `akbasic` is the only
consumer that embeds `libakgl` next to other projects, so it is the only place this could show
up. Fixed upstream by restoring the top-level guard and filed as `libakgl` defect 27.

Building against any of it needs `-DAKBASIC_WITH_AKGL=ON`, which pulls in `libakgl`'s own
submodules (SDL and friends). Those are not initialized in a default clone; `git submodule
update --init --recursive` gets them.

---

## 8. Status

**The port is done.** The C interpreter passes the Go reference's entire corpus and passes clean
under ASan and UBSan. It reproduced that corpus byte for byte until §0.1 retired the
requirement; exactly one case has diverged on purpose since, and
`tests/reference/README.md` lists it.

| Gate | Result |
|---|---|
| `ctest` | 77/77 — 41 reference golden cases, 9 local ones, 25 unit tests, 2 embedding examples. No known-failing tests: the list is empty |
| `ctest` with `-DAKBASIC_WITH_AKGL=ON` | 77/77 on a machine with a display; 76 passed + 1 skipped headless. The same set minus the three `no_device` cases the SDL driver contradicts, plus `akgl_backends`, `akgl_frontend` and `akgl_typing` — the last of which is the skip, and the `akgl_build` CI job is where it skips |
| Golden corpus | 41/41 byte-exact from `tests/reference/` — **and 41/41 again through the SDL binary**, which is most of what proves the frontend changes no output |
| ASan + UBSan | 77/77 |
| Line coverage | 94.6% (3857/4076) — above the 90% gate |
| Function coverage | 98.6% (287/291) |
| Warnings | none under `-Wall -Wextra` |
| `doxygen Doxyfile` | clean |
| Mutation (`src/symtab.c`) | 74.1%, against a gate of 65 — see `.gitea/workflows/ci.yaml` |

Coverage of the verb groups added for goal 2, since they are the new surface: `src/audio_tables.c`
and `src/graphics_tables.c` 100%, `src/runtime_input.c` 100%, `src/runtime_graphics.c` and
`src/runtime_audio.c` 98%, `src/play.c` 87%. The `akbasic_akgl` target is not in the coverage
figure — it is not built in a default configuration.

**A note on reading that number, because it was misread once while producing it.** A stale
`build-cov/` left in the source directory from an earlier session was silently folded into the
report by `gcovr --root .`, which produced the *previous* run's 92.3% for a tree that had grown
by 800 lines. The number above was produced from a coverage tree outside the source directory
entirely, after a `find . -name '*.gcda'` came back empty. That is `libakgl` defect #13 happening here rather than there, and `build*/` being
gitignored is exactly what makes it invisible. **Keep build trees out of the source directory**,
and if a coverage number looks suspiciously unchanged, `find . -name '*.gcda'` before believing
it.

Branch coverage reads 18.0% and is not a target, for the reason `libakgl/TODO.md` and
`libakstdlib/TODO.md` both give: the akerror control-flow macros expand into large branch trees
at every call site, most of them unreachable in normal operation. Track line and function
coverage.

Dependency baseline:

| Submodule | Version | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `deps/libakerror` | 1.0.0 | Private ownership-enforced status registry. akbasic reserves 512–767 in `akbasic_error_register()`. Does not namespace its `coverage` target when embedded — worked around in our `CMakeLists.txt`. |
| `deps/libakstdlib` | 0.2.0 | soname `libakstdlib.so.0.2`. `AKSL_VERSION_CHECK()` asserted in `tests/version_check.c`. This release fixed all six confirmed defects the port was working around — see §1.9, where the bans are now lifted. |
| `deps/libakgl` | 0.3.0 | soname `libakgl.so.0.3`. Owns status codes 256–260. Linked and tested under `-DAKBASIC_WITH_AKGL=ON`, which still defaults OFF so the core library and its whole suite build on a machine with no SDL. **0.3.0 closed every API gap this port had filed** — see §7 — so the four workarounds §3 used to list are gone. |

**The `libakgl` requirement used to be pinned by commit, and no longer is.** 42b60f7 added 22
public symbols across four headers and left `project(akgl VERSION 0.1.0)` and the
`libakgl.so.0.1` soname unchanged, so nothing here could feature-test for the new API and the
submodule pointer was the only thing expressing the requirement. That was filed upstream as
`libakgl` defect #14 and fixed by its commit 1066ac7 — the two crossed rather than one
following the other. `libakgl` is 0.2.0 with an `libakgl.so.0.2` soname, so
`AKGL_VERSION_AT_LEAST(0, 2, 0)` now means something and an ABI mismatch is refused at load
time. Kept here because the *reason* is the reusable part: an additive release under an
unchanged soname costs its consumers the ability to detect it at all.

CI is split in two. `.gitea/workflows/ci.yaml` runs on push -- the suite, ASan+UBSan, coverage
and a two-file mutation run -- and `.gitea/workflows/release.yaml` is manual
(`workflow_dispatch`), carrying the doxygen gate and the whole-tree mutation run. The split is
about cost: the full mutation set is 3675 mutants and hours of runner time, which is a release
gate rather than a per-commit one, and the docs are wanted at release time. Three notes worth
keeping:

- The checkout is `submodules: true`, **not** `recursive`. The build needs `libakerror`,
  `libakstdlib` and `basicinterpret`; it does not need `libakgl`, which is guarded behind
  `AKBASIC_WITH_AKGL` and defaults OFF — and recursing into it would clone SDL, SDL_image,
  SDL_mixer, SDL_ttf and jansson for a target that is never configured. The `docs` job needs
  no submodules at all.
- The push-path `mutation_test` job is bounded to `src/symtab.c`, scoring 74.1% against a gate
  of 65. It was two files until `src/convert.c` was deleted. `src/audio_tables.c` was measured
  as a replacement and scored 64.7%, below the gate — a real gap rather than a reason to skip
  the file: almost every survivor is in `akbasic_audio_state_init`, where nothing asserts that
  a freshly initialised audio state is actually zeroed and defaulted. That is the same gap this
  job's history records closing for `src/symtab.c`, and closing it is what earns the file its
  place back in CI.

  Worth knowing before reading a score: the harness's `ICR` operator only rewrites the
  constants `0` and `1`, so a lookup table of other values produces no mutants at all and a
  high score over one says nothing about whether its entries are right. `tests/audio_verbs.c`
  asserts all 32 ADSR entries anyway — that catches a hand-edit typo, which is the real failure
  mode, but it did not and could not move the mutation number. `src/value.c` is the file most
  worth mutating and is deliberately not on that path: 368 mutants at roughly 11 seconds each
  is about 70 minutes, because almost everything links against it. It is covered by
  `release.yaml`, or locally with `cmake --build build --target mutation`.
- `release.yaml`'s threshold defaults to 65, the same as the push path, rather than something
  stricter. Only two files have ever been measured; a tighter whole-tree number would be a
  guess until a full run establishes a baseline. Raise it through the workflow input once one
  has.

What remains, in priority order:

1. ~~**The standalone AKGL frontend in §3.**~~ **Done** — `src/frontend_akgl.c` in its own
   `akbasic_frontend` target, `src/sink_tee.c` for the stdout mirror, and
   `tests/akgl_frontend.c`. The build option now changes what the executable does. The one
   thing not machine-verified is typing at a real focused window; §3 records why and what was
   verified instead.
2. ~~**A line editor for the akgl sink.**~~ **Done** — `readline` in `src/sink_akgl.c`, over
   the keystroke ring, borrowing frames from the host through an `akbasic_AkglPump`. It cannot
   type a shifted character, which is `libakgl` item 10 rather than work outstanding here.
3. **§4 — the language completion work queue**, and it is the only substantial thing left.
   Done: groups G and I, the `GET`/`GETKEY`/`SCNCLR` part of E, group B, multiple statements
   per line, and array references in parameter lists. Left: groups A, D, F and J, plus
   `RESTORE` and `RENUMBER` out of B and the sprite group H. None needs anything from
   `libakgl` except H.

   **Two pieces of structural work come before the verbs, and both were found rather than
   guessed.** Neither is a verb and neither can be skipped by the group that needs it:

   - **Block skipping works by source line, and group A needs it to work by statement.**
     `waitingForCommand` skips forward to a verb one *line* at a time, so a whole loop written
     on one line — `FOR I# = 1 TO 3 : PRINT I# : NEXT I#` — never reaches its `NEXT`. That is
     inherited structure rather than a slip, and it did not matter until a line could hold more
     than one statement. `DO`/`LOOP`/`WHILE`/`UNTIL` are exactly the verbs people write on one
     line, so group A starts here or it ships something that does not work.
   - **`READ` has no DATA pointer, and `RESTORE` is the verb that needs one.** §4 has the
     detail; the short version is that `READ` skips forward to the next `DATA` *reached in
     execution order*, so a `DATA` line placed before its `READ` is never found at all and a
     second `READ` re-reads the same line. It is a live defect, not only a blocked verb.

   Ordering suggestion, unchanged in spirit from the original: A (after the restructure), then
   D and J, which are self-contained, then F, which is 21 verbs of `aksl_f*` and mostly
   mechanical. H needs a look at `libakgl`'s sprite and actor API before anything is filed.
4. ~~**CI does not cover `-DAKBASIC_WITH_AKGL=ON`.**~~ **Done** — the `akgl_build` job in
   `.gitea/workflows/ci.yaml`. It turned out much cheaper than the deferral assumed, and the
   two reasons are worth keeping because both were guesses that measurement corrected:

   - **`submodules: recursive` is not needed and costs 461 MB.** It descends into
     `SDL_image/external`, `SDL_mixer/external` and `SDL_ttf/external` — aom, dav1d, libjxl,
     libtiff, mpg123, opus, flac and a dozen more — and *not one of them is used*. Every one
     configures as "Could NOT find". The job initialises exactly six submodules
     non-recursively instead, which takes about 25 seconds.
   - **The build is about a minute of CPU, not "a long build".** 330 object files, because
     SDL3 compiles out almost every backend that is not wanted here.

   The one real system dependency is `libfreetype-dev` and `libharfbuzz-dev`: SDL_ttf prefers
   the system copies and would otherwise reach for `external/freetype`, which the checkout
   deliberately does not clone. Two apt packages against two more submodules is an easy trade.

   Every step was verified from a clean clone before being written down, not inferred.
5. ~~**§6 items 12–17.**~~ **All done**, each with a regression test in the suite that pinned
   it. Item 16 was the last, and it was never a coding problem — it was blocked on the
   fidelity constraint §0.1 retired, and took about ten minutes once that went away.
   `AKBASIC_KNOWN_FAILING_TESTS` is empty as a result and `tests/known_reference_defects.c` is
   gone.

   **§6 items 1–9 and 11 are now open in a way they were not.** They were reproduced
   deliberately and left alone because faithfulness was the goal; it is not any more. Read them
   as an ordinary defect list. Item 4 (`mathPlus` mutates `self` in place, which `CommandNEXT`
   relies on) is the one with real blast radius and still wants `FOR`/`NEXT` coverage before
   anybody touches it. Item 5 (binary operators add *both* of the right operand's numeric
   fields) is the one worth doing early: it is currently harmless, it makes two mutants in
   `src/value.c` unkillable, and it is a landmine for any future value carrying both.
6. **Mutation survivors in `src/value.c`** — ~~closed~~, with one correction to what was
   written here before. `tests/value_arithmetic.c` grew two functions,
   `test_maximum_length_string()` and `test_pool_starts_empty()`, and each was verified by
   hand-applying the mutant and watching the test fail rather than by assuming it would:

   | Mutant | Result |
   |---|---|
   | `strncpy(dest->stringval, src, AKBASIC_MAX_STRING_LENGTH - 1)` → `- 2` | killed |
   | `dest->stringval[AKBASIC_MAX_STRING_LENGTH - 1] = '\0'` → `- 2` | killed |
   | `strncpy(..., AKBASIC_MAX_STRING_LENGTH - 1)` → `- 0` | **equivalent — cannot be killed** |
   | `memset(obj, 0, sizeof(*obj))` deleted from `akbasic_valuepool_init` | killed |
   | `obj->next = 0` → `= 1` | killed |

   **The correction.** This entry used to say all five were real bugs and that "one test that
   round-trips a 255-character string kills all five". Two things about that were wrong.

   The `- 0` mutant is *equivalent*. `strncpy(dest, src, 256)` into a 256-byte buffer writes at
   most 256 bytes, and `set_string()` has already refused anything longer than 255 two lines
   above, so the extra byte is always the terminator `strncpy` would have written anyway. It
   cannot be killed and should not be counted against the score.

   And the obvious test does *not* kill the truncating mutant. Joining a full-length string to
   an empty one passes with the mutant in place, because `akbasic_value_math_plus` clones
   `self` into the scratch before writing and the byte a short copy fails to write is already
   the right one. The operands have to sum to the limit **without either of them being the
   answer** — the test uses 200 `X` plus 55 `Z`, and says so at the site, because this is
   exactly the sort of thing that gets "simplified" back into a passing no-op.

   Two survivors there are genuinely equivalent and cannot be killed: `rval_as_int` and
   `rval_as_float` (`src/value.c:30,35`) tolerate `+` → `-` because the reference's habit of
   adding *both* of the right operand's numeric fields only works when the unused one is zero
   — §6 item 5. Fixing that defect would make these two mutants killable, which is a small
   argument for doing it.

   `src/value.c` takes about 70 minutes to mutate in full (368 mutants, ~11s each, because
   almost everything links against it), which is why CI runs `src/symtab.c` instead and the
   whole-tree run is a local `cmake --build build --target mutation`.