The limits of the language#

A spec can only say what the language has words for. This page says which words can be added, and which cannot. Read it before you ask for a new operator, block or keyword. For the rules a spec itself has to obey, read the ten rules.

How a new construct enters#

A request for something new is one of four kinds, and the kind decides what it costs to add.

A macro is a template with arguments, written in the file under macros:. Adding one costs nothing: it uses only operators that exist, so no engine has to change (macros).
A primitive is an operator built into the language: sum, sum_back, at, shift, and the where comparisons. Adding one is the expensive kind: every engine that builds models has to implement it, and the typesetter has to print it in LaTeX, Typst and Markdown.
A formulation is a block that states ordinary variables and constraints rather than being one. piecewise: and sos: are the two. It costs as much as a primitive to build, but composes as freely as a macro. It emits variables, constraints and assumptions, and no parameter, so spec.expand() writes it out with the data the spec already expects.
A declaration section is a block of declarations of one kind, such as variables: or given:. One enters where it states something no section states, where a file decides it without data, and where the typesetter prints it. given: entered on all three. No other section says that a parameter, a column, a named expression or a row family belongs to another file, and that is what lets a component file load and print on its own.

A request that is none of the four is refused, and the table of refusals records it with what to write instead.

What a new primitive has to satisfy#

A macro must be able to call it. Everything a modeller might pass in goes in the value of a keyword argument, such as over=snapshot.

An operator names its price in rows read. sum(p, over=g) reads one row per generator, and shift(p, along=t, offset=1) reads the row before. Each reads a bounded number of rows per output row, so an engine builds the model one chunk of rows at a time. An operator that calls itself is refused, because nothing bounds how far it expands.

The operator	Allowed?
filters rows on a column they already carry	yes
joins each row against a parameter or a relation	yes
reads a fixed number of neighbouring rows	yes
reads only the coordinate labels	yes
reads every row	yes, at one full pass before any chunk builds
calls itself	no, and the message names what to write instead

Degree is not a test for a new primitive. The product rule holds for every operator.

A new primitive is finished when lowering builds it, the typesetter prints it in all three formats, and an engine's build of a spec that uses it matches its build of the same spec written out by hand.

Three kinds of refusal#

The language refuses it because…	Examples	Can it change?
one solver cannot take it	indicator constraints; a quadratic constraint (solver capability)	yes, solver by solver
the file would stop being the artifact	arbitrary Python, whose content no loader can check and no typesetter can print	no
this project puts the work elsewhere	data preparation such as resampling; helpers for one domain; Python that decides which declarations exist	it could; this project does not want it to

What counts as data preparation#

A column computed in pandas and a column the language could derive look the same once attached. One sentence tells them apart:

Data preparation computes what the spec cannot state. The language derives what it can from the data the spec already expects.

A cycle basis is the first kind. It needs the network's topology, which only the data has, so cycle_incidence arrives as a parameter. A minimum up time is the second kind. min_up_time is a column the spec already expects, so sum_back(window=min_up_time) reads the width off the column and you ship no window mask.

Checking a column is neither. p_min <= p_max is a rule two consumers must not answer differently, so the rule is language and the check is the consumer's. The file states the predicate, and whoever attaches the numbers runs it.

Deliberate non-primitives#

Each row is a request the language refuses, with the reason and what to write instead.

Request	Why refused	Instead
Resampling, clustering, file IO, unit conversion	not math	do it in data preparation, and pass a parameter
Unit checking at load	a `unit: MW` on a parameter is a claim that nothing checks against the column, and it needs a grammar of units the language then maintains	convert to one unit system in data preparation, and name it in the `description:`. A range the data has to meet is an `assumptions:` entry
Array operations such as `merge` and `reindex`	there is no end to them	data preparation
Helpers for one domain, such as `reduce_carrier_dim`	writes one field's vocabulary into the language	a component library of macros over the operators that exist
A vocabulary for tracked metrics: `impacts:`, `effects:`, a `costs` axis	a named expression already does this	an `impact` dimension and one named expression. Cap it with a constraint, weight it in the objective, read it back after the solve
`**` with a variable in the base or the exponent	the exponent would decide the degree, and `to_spec` reads no data	`x * x` for a square. `**` over parameters and numbers is allowed
Normalisation, `x / sum(x)`	dividing by a variable is not a polynomial, and no solver takes it	write the ratio as a constraint, or fix the denominator
An `if`, a loop, or declarations that depend on the data	`to_spec` could no longer read the file without the data	`where:` masks and `dims:` dimensions. A tool may loop over specs
A Python API for building specs	the spec is the file you review and diff	YAML, or a `dict` with the same keys, merged before `to_spec`
A `where` comparing a relation column against the dimension it maps into	the relation already pairs the two, and a mask over the pair is the same fact in a bigger shape	place the quantity with `sum(by=)`, or read it with `at(by=)` (operators)