FPF Reference

    Plausible-reader guards and cold-reader recovery

    Preface node heading:plausible-reader-guards-and-cold-reader-recovery:100524

    What this page is

    This is generated FPF reference text from the specification preface or supporting sections. It helps interpret FPF; it is not FPF Reference product documentation.

    Methodology

    Use it to understand how the specification wants to be read, then return to a route, pattern, or work packet for active work. Cite generated IDs only when the wording changes the task decision.

    Content

    Use two reader tests for different decisions.

    • The plausible intended reader has the knowledge and task presupposed by the text. Use this reader to decide whether a foil, guard, warning, or contrast deserves mention. Do not substitute an adversarial reader who can imagine any false inference, or the author who already knows the answer.
    • The cold intended reader lacks the author's private context and unpublished notes. Use this reader after the rewrite: they can recover the object, predicate, participants, relevant kind or ordinary status, relation, action-changing detail, and next useful action.

    Retain a negative alternative, denied consequence, warning, or non-use statement only when the exact rejected reading has an independent local ground; a plausible intended reader could take that reading here, including an evidenced type mistake; and the distinction changes truth, understanding, selection, safety, stop, reliance, or action. An earlier or source claim, an observed recurring mistake, a serious competing position, a visible representation feature, or an applicable safety risk can supply the ground. The guard itself cannot.

    Even a grounded guard should be the smallest clear correction. When actor allocation is the useful content, state it positively: “On receiving new evidence, the reader decides whether to reopen checking or revision.” When currentness is the useful content, state the direct use: “This guide conveys the seminar of 1 February 2026; check current rules against the current FPF edition.” Keep material negation, documented anti-patterns, fair disputes, and safety stops when their polarity or boundary is itself the claim.

    Last Updated: 2026-09-03 — upstream FPF commit b999972c (github.com/ailev/FPF)