12.1 Informative vs normative
What the Beskid Book is allowed to claim—and where platform-spec is law.
Informative vs normative
Normative text defines what the platform must do. Informative text helps humans survive Monday.
Surfaces
Section titled “Surfaces”| Surface | Role |
|---|---|
| Platform specification | Single normative tree for language + platform |
Beskid Book (/book/) | Tutorial voice, workflows, links into spec |
| Book reference | CLI/LSP/project cookbooks—practical, not law |
Legacy /execution/, /corelib/ | Non-normative bridges unless explicitly linked |
Policy: Non-normative bridge docs.
What this book may do
Section titled “What this book may do”- Explain why and how to try something.
- Link to spec articles with stable paths.
- Show examples that may lag spec for a week—spec wins when they disagree.
What this book may not do
Section titled “What this book may not do”- Invent MUST/SHOULD rules that exist only here.
- Duplicate normative key tables from language-meta (link instead).
- Mark behavior Standard without a spec page at the same commit.
Downloads and install
Section titled “Downloads and install”Downloads and install scripts are operator-facing; manifest contracts are normative under Tooling.