card-game.el/LIFT.md

LIFT · card-game — CANDIDATE

Session 2026-08-03. Everything here is CANDIDATE until Corwin says otherwise. Scope: only the repo (card-game.el) was mounted — not the card-game project wrapper the brief named, not dungeon, not c4/. The sandbox had no system Emacs (apt blocked, non-root), but the recorded micromamba recipe delivered a userspace Emacs 30 — so the oracle below was RUN this session, not quoted.

1. What it IS

card-games v1.0.91 ("pretest2: playtest"): a GNU ELPA-style Emacs package of ~30 card games over one small EIEIO engine (cg-core.el, 324 lines). Abstract cg-game (name + plist env + current renderer) with cg-render / cg-won-p generics; family base classes (cg-solitaire-game, cg-trick-game, cg-rummy-game→cg-tablemeld-game, cg-fish-game, cg-patience-game, cg-gaps-game) carry shared rules; each game is a small subclass. Display is a separate seam: renderer "skins" (text, svg, svg-fill) registered by name, each mapping clicks back to game actions via rectangle→action region lists. Cards are (SUIT . RANK) conses, suits indexed 0=♠ 1=♣ 2=♦ 3=♥, rank scales per-game, nil = empty slot. Ships an Info manual, a Makefile exposing the full lifecycle, network play for 500 (cg-bid-host/cg-bid-join), and a 150-test ERT suite. Maintenance-stage; published at code.bru.st/corwin/card-game.

2. The oracle (the ONE thing that already fails loudly)

make test — test/card-games-tests.el, 150 ert-deftests, batch exit nonzero on any failure — and release: refuses to package without it (release: distclean version readme test tarball). The suite header documents the exact no-make invocation:

emacs -Q --batch -L . -L test -l test/card-games-tests.el \
      -f ert-run-tests-batch-and-exit

RUN this session (userspace Emacs 30, tree exported from git HEAD objects into /tmp — no mount-desync exposure): 150/150 passed, 0 unexpected, 15.4s, exit 0 (2026-08-03 20:07:52-0500). Secondary gate also run: batch byte-compile of all 24 EL files — clean, zero warnings. Remaining gate family not run here: checkdoc, lint.

3. What C4 takes FROM it

Each claim names the tool that fails it.

• The renderer-seam pattern. One game model, N display treatments, registered by name, never subclassing the game per treatment; clicks map back through declared (RECT . ACTION) regions; cg-color degrades to a drawable fallback in batch/terminal. This is the house answer to "one truth, two representations" for any C4 surface with console + graphical faces. Fails-it: cgt-render-registry and kin in the suite.
• Taxonomy-by-family engine reuse. Engine → family base → thin game subclass; 30 games prove the substrate. The C4RP shared-substrate story working in miniature. Fails-it: the per-family ERT groups.
• The oracle discipline itself. One test file, one batch line, wired into make test and gating release. rewire-order says go first with the project that has an oracle — this one HAS one. Fails-it: itself.
• Org→MD canonicity, implemented. README.org is source; build.el (ox-md, never-signal, CARD_GAMES_ORG override) exports; a pre-commit hook keeps README.md in step. ORG-NATIVE stance made mechanical. Fails-it (host): make readme && git diff --exit-code README.md — empty diff = in step. Not proven here (needs Emacs); the md-newer-than-org mtimes are consistent but mtime is never a tiebreaker.
• Version fan-out. Single VERSION in the Makefile; make version regenerates doc/version.texi; bump patch z for every releasable set. Fails-it (ran, passed): grep '^;; Version:' *.el | sort -u — one value, 1.0.91, across 24 headers + Makefile + pkg.el + version.texi.
• Scars kept as comments. The release tar archives an explicit file list because ".": "the growing output tarball … is never read mid-write — which is what caused 'tar: .: file changed as we read it'." The failure mode rides with the fix. Liftable practice, not just this instance.

4. Vocabulary (for the dungeon:cards negotiation)

Dungeon is not mounted; I cannot see its side. This is card-game's offer, one-sided, plus the C4 terms this repo does not use.

card-game has, C4/dungeon must match or map: card (SUIT . RANK); suit index order 0♠ 1♣ 2♦ 3♥ (black-black-red-red — NOT bridge order ♣♦♥♠; first and likeliest silent-drift item, negotiate before any shared register); per-game rank scales (no global ace-high/low); joker; nil = empty slot; sister-suit (same-colour partner); renderer/"skin"/"treatment"; env (per-game plist); region/action click maps; pile nouns — foundation, tableau, stock, waste, reserve, cell, gap, hand, trick, book, bags, meld, house (Russian Bank), crib/peg, capture. Shuffle is Fisher-Yates over Emacs random — seedability for replay/net determinism is a negotiation point, not currently a promise.

C4 has, this repo does not: run-level, oracle (the word; it has the thing), vocab/register, lift, candidate/canon, run-card, instrument. The repo predates the register; nothing in it will collide, but nothing anchors it either.

5. Run-level evidence (guess was ~4)

The Makefile exposes the lifecycle as named signals: compile, test, checkdoc, lint, package, elpa, release, info, hooks — with self-test gating release, install via standard package.el, and enablement via M-x card-game plus a shipped Info manual. From this sandbox I verified only static signals. The run-level scale itself lives in c4/, deliberately not mounted — I hold no instrument for the pin; evidence reads at-or-above the guess, and the pin stays with Corwin.

6. Session receipts

• No system Emacs (uid 1174, apt blocked); micromamba userspace Emacs 30 worked (recipe from session memory). Oracle run 150/150; compile clean. Mount-vs-HEAD spot-check agreed on 4 files before the run (no desync seen).
• Memory drift found and corrected in session notes: tree is at 1.0.91 / 30 games / 150 tests (notes said 1.0.60 / 5 games / 88).
• org-c4 brief arrived in the same paste; org-c4 is not mounted — not executable here, untouched.
• Git reads were object-reads only (git log); no index-touching commands on the mount. Tree tarballs and *~ files are .gitignored by design.
• This file is untracked on purpose: CANDIDATE, his pen to bless, never mine.