D311 - Shell events carry meanings, and codes ship empty
Status: decided Date: 2026-08-27
ShellEvent is this project's own vocabulary with no
codes. Delivery, mapping a meaning to a code, and
Parameters ship empty; Settings holds what a
person chose. An event with no measured code is withheld at
post and counted in the run report.
Why: there is no lawful source for the vendor's
event numbering, and an invented code is a number the guest acts on
wrongly with the failure surfacing elsewhere. Deciding at
post keeps the queue to deliverable events, so an unmapped
event cannot block the ones behind it. A counted withholding says the
shell did not deliver, rather than appearing to work.
Rejected:
- Plausible or zero codes: the guest reads a meaning it was not sent.
- Queuing undeliverable events: an unmapped head blocks the queue.