ascii-header-formatting

name	ascii-header-formatting
description	Enforce ASCII-only section headers and comment banners. Use when writing or reviewing code comments, section dividers, or banner headers in any source file. Do not use Unicode box-drawing characters.

ASCII Header Formatting

All section headers and comment banners in source files must use only plain ASCII characters. Unicode box-drawing characters (e.g. ─, ━, │, ╔, ═) are forbidden.

Rules

• Use - for horizontal rules and divider lines.
• Headers must be padded with trailing - characters so that the full line reaches column 80 (the standard ruler width).
• The format is // -- <title> <filler> where <filler> is as many - characters as needed to make the total line length exactly 80 characters.
• Indented headers (inside a module or module private) follow the same rule, counting the leading spaces as part of the line length.
• Apply consistently across F#, C#, and Scheme source files in this repo.

Examples

Correct — line is exactly 80 characters wide

// -- Public API ---------------------------------------------------------------
// -- Helpers ------------------------------------------------------------------

    // -- Lambda ---------------------------------------------------------------
    // -- Variable lookup with capture tracking --------------------------------

To compute filler length: 80 - len("// -- <title> ") dashes.

Incorrect — too short, or using Unicode box-drawing characters

// -- Public API --------------------
// ─── Public API ───────────────────
// ━━━ Helpers ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Normalization Standard

Throughout the Feersum codebase, only the single-line // -- Title ---... format is acceptable. Older code may still use three other patterns; these must be migrated:

❌ Three-line block with equals (used in test files)

// ============================================================================
// Tests: local variable counts
// ============================================================================

Migrate to: // -- Tests: local variable counts --... (to column 80)

❌ Centered equals headers (used in Lex.fs, Parse.fs)

// =============================== Utilities ==================================

Migrate to: // -- Utilities --... (to column 80)

❌ Dashes without -- prefix (used in LibrariesOld.fs, Builtins.fs)

// -------------------- Public Libraries API ---------------------
// -------------- Title --------------------

Migrate to: // -- Public Libraries API --... (to column 80)

Why standardize on // -- Title ---?

• Single line is more maintainable (easier to search, update, and refactor)
• Dashes are more readable than equals in code context
• Column 80 is the standard ruler width across the project
• -- prefix creates visual consistency for all section levels
• Nested indentation (4-space modules) preserves the 80-char rule naturally