Publish the VDMT white paper and Markdown-first theory website

[Llewellynvdm]

Ready for review and merge

The complete publication is implemented on vdmt-formal-specification. Do not merge automatically.

Documentation

• 61 substantive articles plus a Markdown-backed 404 page, comprising 34,464 words under the publication's documented counter.
• An integrated white paper; formal state model and conditional propositions; contextual closure, nested gathering, scoped derivation, definition/occurrence identity, hierarchical reuse, staged binding, materialization, editorial recovery, reconciliation, invalidation, provenance, and self-generation.
• A pinned JCB implementation case study using the canonical joomengine/Joomla-Component-Builder repository, with historical source evidence for 30 January 2016 and a clear distinction from this 2026 formal edition.
• Related work, language-independent implementation guidance, applications, cognitive research hypotheses, benchmark methodology, bibliography, glossary, and citation guidance.

Markdown-first publication

Each article has an HTML page and a byte-identical Markdown alternate generated from DOCS/. Page controls provide Markdown reading/download, source, citation, and sharing. The build also supplies a complete Markdown edition/archive, article SHA-256 manifest, local full-text search, sitemap, llms.txt, and llms-full.txt.

The site uses clinical white-paper typography, responsive chapter navigation, system/light/dark appearance, locally hosted SVG mathematical typesetting and diagrams, and VDM branding. No font files are distributed.

Executable model and rights

An original bounded Python reference model demonstrates context gathering, positive closure, scoped facts, staged binding, artifact identity, and marked-region round trips. It is not a copy or port of JCB.

Original explanatory prose and diagrams use CC BY 4.0; original reference code and site tooling use MIT. Brand assets and upstream materials retain their separate rights. Attribution identifies Llewellyn van der Merwe. The license explanation distinguishes ownership of protected expression from exclusive rights over mathematical ideas or independently implemented methods.

Validation completed

Verified publication run: https://github.com/vast-development-method/theory/actions/runs/34983560677

• 47 unit tests passed.
• The complete synthetic reference demonstration passed, including preservation of an admitted editorial change.
• 62 HTML/Markdown pairs and their source digests/archive copies verified.
• 10,189 local link references checked with no errors in the retained run report.
• 62 desktop and 62 mobile article renderings checked, with no document-width overflow.
• Mathematical rendering and diagram rendering passed; no MathJax error nodes or browser page errors were recorded.
• System theme changes, persistent manual overrides, local search, Escape dismissal, and mobile navigation passed.
• Light/dark, mobile, and mathematical-rendering screenshots retained and visually reviewed.

The vdmt-source and vdmt-publication workflow artifacts contain the source archive, built site, validation reports, screenshots, reference demonstration, and dependency manifest. Browser library integrity and the selected brand source are locked in vendor.lock.json.

Branding acquisition

The supplied full VDM wordmark is included. The preferred www.vdm.io/VDM.png and vdm.io/VDM.png endpoints returned HTTP 403 to the build, so the small mark and favicon use the official vast-development-method organization avatar. This is recorded explicitly in the acquisition lock and brand notices, not presented as a successful download from the blocked URL.

Publication boundary

Only successful main builds deploy through GitHub Pages. This PR does not merge itself, change repository visibility, configure external DNS, or claim the public domain is already deployed. Repository Pages settings must use GitHub Actions and the custom domain theory.vdm.io; the domain's DNS must be configured separately.

Scientific scope

Source observations, historical records, author testimony, formal deductions, proposed extensions, and empirical hypotheses remain distinct. The work does not claim an awarded degree, completed independent peer review, universal cognitive optimality, or independent reproduction of the reported million-line JCB benchmark.