Document independent widget bounds and measured layout costs

docs/HANDOFF.md

@@ -4,10 +4,42 @@ Where the work in flight stands. The settled layout design, the vocabulary
 and the measurement method are in `docs/LAYOUT.md`; what the review of #19
 found is in `docs/LAYOUT_LOG.md`.
 
+## Built-in bounds replace `MaxSize` on PR #19
+
+Bryan clarified that the built-in attribute should replace the wrapper.
+Work is in `/home/bob/repos/iris-deferred`, on `layout/one-ask`, at
+`2ac0843` (pushed). Bounds now constrain the offer in `Placing::ask`; declarations
+are retained as resolved window lengths, so movement does not decide the
+bound again. `.max_width`/`.max_height` now edit the same widget, like the
+minimum helpers, and `MaxSize` is removed. Preferred lengths and bounds
+are independent, so either order of `.width` and `.max_width` works. The
+app pin is unchanged.
+
+The review fixed three cases: `window_holds` erasing an ask's bound crossing
+(seed 104, depth 5), inactive bound edits failing to update the parent's offer
+dependencies (seed 144, depth 6, reduced further to three widgets), and a
+fractional intrinsic cap being read against its already-allocated slot.
+The latter has an absolute 75-in-300 geometry check; warm/cold agreement
+alone cannot catch it.
+
+207 ordinary and 211 diagnostic tests pass, with warning-clean Clippy both
+ways. All three layout scans pass (400 depth 5, 1,000 depth 6, 2,000 depth 4),
+as do 400 depth-5 trees in each of three deferred-request corpora. All 34,986
+unbounded cold boxes match `4cb6f68`; bounded offers intentionally change.
+The final unbounded-path optimization preserves every bounded cold box too.
+
+Five-run release instruction medians show capped rows using 21.77–29.64%
+less CPU work than the wrapper. Plain/fixed-width retained resizes differ by
+under 0.05%; forced redraws improve about 0.3%. Text workloads differ by at
+most 0.13%. Independent preferences and bounds cost 32 extra inline bytes per
+widget; all three allocation fixtures remain allocation-free after warm-up.
+`docs/LAYOUT.md` records the contract and measurements. Artifacts are in
+`/tmp/attribute-bounds/`.
+
 ## A quality sweep of the deferred system is submitted on PR #19
 
-`layout/one-ask` is at `4cb6f68` in `/home/bob/repos/iris-deferred`. The tenth
+The tenth sweep landed at `4cb6f68` in `/home/bob/repos/iris-deferred`. It is
-sweep is the first review of `76aaf06` through `0e838e9` -- the bound rules,
+the first review of `76aaf06` through `0e838e9` -- the bound rules,
 the deferred request path and the invalidation fix. Ten findings, the largest
 two being a bound's held length looked up a second time through a value that
 could not promise the end it named (`Bound::at` `expect`ed it), and a bound in
@@ -176,7 +208,9 @@ repeated 34,492, which is a `wc -l` of the whole run rather than of its box
 lines, so count the lines that are a box (`grep -cE '^[0-9]+ [0-9]+ '`). It is the only thing that catches two
 same-typed values being swapped, which is the failure mode of a rename or a
 move. The repair moved 650 of those boxes, all from the collapsed-share
-correction; every commit since has been byte-identical to `84dad21`.
+correction. Subsequent review-only changes preserved cold geometry through
+`4cb6f68`; the offered-bound change in `2ac0843` intentionally changes bounded
+geometry while preserving all unbounded boxes.
 
 **Only when the change can alter what layout computes**: the three seed scans
 -- 400 at depth 5, 1,000 at depth 6, 2,000 at depth 4. They cost about a
@@ -257,7 +291,8 @@ glyphs do not follow a shortened entry.
   (`SizeRule::{Min, Max, Clamp}`); a widget holds the box (`MaxSize`, which
   `.max_width`/`.max_height` build). Bryan settled the split on 2026-09-20
   after four readings were measured; the reasoning is in `docs/LAYOUT_LOG.md`.
-  The deferred-request work fixes stale relative-bound reuse by tracking the
+  Bryan superseded that split with the built-in bounds work above. The
+  deferred-request work fixes stale relative-bound reuse by tracking the
   input base and comparing resolved bounds, with a reduced natural-size-hint
   regression and 400 depth-5 relative-bound trees. Intrinsic bounds remain
   `Len`s; comparisons involving leftover use `SizeRequest`. Ordinary generated

docs/LAYOUT.md

@@ -12,6 +12,57 @@ in flight stands. The sections from "Three names, and the one argument that
 says them" onwards are the settled design, the findings that outlived the
 working log, and the measurement method.
 
+## Bounds on the offered box
+
+`SizeRule` carries an optional preferred request and independent min/max bounds.
+The bounds constrain both the box offered to a widget and its reported size.
+`.min_width`, `.max_width` and their height variants edit that widget's rules
+and preserve its identity and type; `MaxSize` is removed. Setting `.width` or `.height` preserves the bounds; setting a bound
+preserves the preferred request and the other bound, in either call order.
+`Widgets::set_len` makes the same edit at runtime; `set_size_rule` replaces
+the complete axis. This replaces the rule/widget split recorded in
+`LAYOUT_LOG.md` (Bryan, 2026-09-20).
+
+The shared ask resolves declarations and bounds against the incoming rel
+base, compares the offer, and retains the chosen box length in `Declared`.
+These are window lengths. Placement aligns a retained length in its destination
+without resolving it again or comparing the destination against the bound.
+The comparison's window range and incoming-region dependency invalidate the
+ask when its inputs change. Ask constraints are combined after the draw, so a
+widget widening its own `window_holds` cannot erase a bound's crossing.
+Fractional rules also track their incoming base. Allocated slots use the
+allocator's base for bounds; applying a 25% cap to its own 25% slot would
+shrink it twice. Changing an inactive bound also reaches the parent, because
+it changes which offers the parent can safely reuse.
+A cap constrains wrapping and scroll viewports, but short intrinsic content
+can still report less than the cap. Shares remain deferred requests for the
+parent to allocate; the offered box does not replace their reported weight.
+
+Measured against `4cb6f68`, medians of five release-process instruction counts:
+
+| Fixture | Before | After | Change |
+| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: |
+| 128 capped rows, 2,000 resizes | 7.387B | 5.779B | -21.77% |
+| Same, every widget redrawn | 13.864B | 9.755B | -29.64% |
+| 128 plain rows, every widget redrawn | 10.041B | 10.010B | -0.31% |
+| 128 fixed-width rows, every widget redrawn | 10.085B | 10.056B | -0.29% |
+| 40 text rows, 1,000 resizes | 9.460B | 9.472B | +0.13% |
+
+Plain and fixed-width retained resizes differ by under 0.05%; text repaint,
+edit and scroll differ by -0.05%, +0.07% and +0.06%. `tests/bounds_cost.rs`
+asserts the same geometry for the old builders and new attributes, with 513
+active widgets before and 385 after in the capped fixture. The text runs use
+`tests/revision_cost.rs`. These include cold setup and do not measure GPU or
+phone frame times. The unbounded cold dump remains identical at 34,986 boxes;
+bounded geometry changes intentionally because the offer is now constrained.
+
+The storage tradeoff is explicit: a `SizeRule` is now 40 bytes rather than 24,
+so independent preferences and bounds add 32 inline bytes per widget across
+both axes. Plain, expression-bounded and attribute-bounded fixtures each
+perform zero allocations over 100 forced-redraw resize frames after warm-up.
+Bounds introduce no heap allocation; an expression also loses
+its former extra outer `Arc`. Artifacts are in `/tmp/attribute-bounds/`.
+
 ## Deferred size requests on PR #19
 
 `Widget::draw` still returns the small, copyable `Size` of two `LayoutLen`s.

docs/PLAN.md

@@ -872,7 +872,12 @@ is its *placement*, and the length a fraction resolves against is its *rel
 base*. A container says all three in one `PlaceDesc` argument. `Widget::draw`
 remains the only layout body. PR #19 also has optional size-request discovery
 for deferred min/max/clamp expressions (2026-09-20); ordinary widgets still
-return `Size`, and plain requests retain symbolic allocation. The invariants,
+return `Size`, and plain requests retain symbolic allocation. Built-in
+min/max/clamp rules also constrain the offered box; the dimension helpers
+edit the widget's own attributes, replacing the `MaxSize` wrapper. Preferred
+lengths and bounds are independent, so setting `.width` preserves `.max_width`
+and vice versa. Bound choices are retained as resolved lengths so moving a
+drawing cannot resolve them against a different box. The invariants,
 the measured costs, the fuzzing method and the failed hypotheses are all in
 `docs/LAYOUT.md`; the app's pin at
 `32f6ad8` predates every part of it, so nothing here depends on it until the