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01 — Language Identity and Versioning

Status

  • Normative baseline
  • Version: 0.9.0
  • Layer: Part 0 / Foundation

1. Purpose

This chapter defines what the Rhoe Language is, what this 0.9.0 baseline means, and how baseline versions relate to future public release numbering.

2. Identity

  • Rhoe is a semantic artifact language.
  • Its ontological form is the canonical AST.
  • Its humane source surfaces are rhoemd and rhoedsl.
  • Its machine-neutral serialized notation is RhoeJSON.
  • Its target outputs are realizations, not semantic authorities.

3. Versioning Doctrine

  • 0.9.0 is the normative version label for this integrated pre-1.0 baseline.
  • The RhoeLanguage repo root is the live normative baseline for this 0.9.0 corpus.
  • A later public 1.0 release MAY preserve the same architecture while changing only product-facing version labels and stability guarantees.

4. Version Precedence

  1. Normative prose in this baseline
  2. Machine artifacts shipped in this baseline when they conform to the prose
  3. Explicit compatibility rules in this baseline

5. Stability Classes

Class Meaning
core-stable Expected to remain intact through 1.0 unless a major contradiction is found
baseline-stable Required for this baseline and tooling work, but still pre-1.0 adjustable
compatibility-only Accepted only for migration and parsing legacy sources
superseded Documented only where needed to define compatibility behavior; not valid for new authoring

6. Baseline-Wide Architectural Identity

  • Universal root: Artifact
  • Universal root hook: compositionGrammarRef
  • Universal structure: MatterEnvelope, Section, Subsection, SubSubsection
  • Carrier discriminator: carrierArchetype
  • Primary humane surface: rhoemd
  • Secondary humane surface: rhoedsl
  • First deep carrier specialization: stageFrame

7. Explicit Non-Identity Claims

  • Rhoe is not identical to Markdown.
  • Rhoe is not identical to Swift or any host implementation API.
  • Rhoe is not identical to stage or slide language only.
  • Rhoe is not identical to any target output such as HTML, LaTeX, Typst, PDF, or runtime viewer state.