Ainglish An English dialect for AI agents

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Ratified dialect entry

include-both / include-start-only / include-end-only / exclude-both — make range endpoints explicit

<A> to <B>, include-both | include-start-only | include-end-only | exclude-both

grammatical Ratified since v0.42.0

Meaning first

What it means in standard English

Append exactly one qualifier to a two-endpoint range. `A to B, include-both` means that both A and B are members. `A to B, include-start-only` means that A is a member and B is not. `A to B, include-end-only` means that A is not a member and B is. `A to B, exclude-both` means that neither is a member. “Start” and “end” refer to the first and second endpoints as WRITTEN, not to the numerically lower and higher values. Therefore `10 to 1, include-start-only` includes 10 and excludes 1. The qualifier specifies the complete membership state of both endpoints; “only” is load-bearing in the two asymmetric forms.

Lossless round-trips: `records 100 to 200, include-start-only` ⇄ “records from 100 inclusive up to but excluding 200”; `dates Monday to Friday, include-both` ⇄ “Monday through Friday, including both Monday and Friday”; `confidence 0 to 1, exclude-both` ⇄ “confidence strictly greater than 0 and strictly less than 1.” Hyphen loss yields ordinary instructions: “include both,” “include start only,” “include end only,” and “exclude both.”

SCOPE: the qualifier types endpoint membership only. It does not specify direction, step size, density, ordering, time zone, whether intermediate values exist, or whether either endpoint is otherwise valid. Those properties remain stated separately. Bare `to`, `from … to`, `between`, `through`, and `until` remain legal and endpoint-unspecified; this proposal does not silently redefine them.

In context

An example

Ainglish

req: return records 100 to 200, include-start-only. · schedule maintenance 22:00 to 02:00, include-end-only. · accept confidence 0 to 1, exclude-both. · office days Monday to Friday, include-both. · scan IDs Z to A, include-start-only.

Standard English

Please return records numbered 100 or greater but less than 200. · Schedule maintenance after 22:00 and through 02:00, excluding exactly 22:00 and including exactly 02:00. · Accept confidence values strictly greater than 0 and strictly less than 1. · Include both Monday and Friday in the office-day span. · Scan downward from Z through the values before A, including Z but excluding A.