LOLCODE spec: smaller semantic gaps (items 7-14) #159

Found while marking the LOLCODE assignment (Fall 2026, 36 submissions). The quoted text is from lolcode/ and info/ on master.

Each item can be fixed and ticked off separately.

• 7. Negative literals contradict

  spec/variables.rst: "Integer literals are allowed to have a leading hyphen". impl/assertions.rst (nonnegative-literals): "All integer literals will be >= 0". Several lexers have no sign.

  Proposed fix: keep one; if negatives are allowed, add -5 to an example.

• 8. Integer width is permissive

  "Integers can be represented using the host's 32-bit implementation." Some used 64-bit (one student noticed the "can").

  Proposed fix: "NUMBR is a signed 32-bit integer."

• 9. Division and modulo of negatives are unspecified

  QUOSHUNT truncation and MOD sign (C++ % truncates toward zero; one student used floored mod, another abs).

  Proposed fix: "QUOSHUNT truncates toward zero; MOD takes the sign of the dividend, as in C++".

• 10. BIGGR OF/SMALLR OF on YARNs

  The math section says YARN operands are converted to NUMBR, but BIGGR OF/SMALLR OF are introduced only in the If-then section. Some compared YARNs lexicographically.

  Proposed fix: list them with the math operators.

• 11. WTF? matching and conversion

  OMG literals "must be unique" but the spec does not say whether matching follows BOTH SAEM (no implicit conversion) or converts. Is OMG 1 distinct from OMG "1"?

  Proposed fix: "a case matches when BOTH SAEM <selector> AN <literal> is WIN".

• 12. Redeclaration

  Nothing says what I HAS A x does when x exists, which happens on the second pass of a loop body. Students threw, overwrote, or kept the old value.

  Proposed fix: say it re-initialises (or is invalid input).

• 13. Scope of a loop-body declaration

  "All variable scope is local to the main program block", but the iterated loop variable is "temporary, and local to the loop". One student built a scope stack.

  Proposed fix: one sentence: declarations inside any block are visible after it.

• 14. GIMMEH reads what?

  "takes YARN for input". Word or line? Leading whitespace kept? Several used std::cin >>.

  Proposed fix: "reads one line, without its newline".