Record that padding is an inset and plan the frame-as-length representation

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

docs/HANDOFF.md

@@ -198,42 +198,30 @@ the rest are laid out) all narrow the frame.
 length until the span divides its room, and it narrows the frame at the
 placing ask instead.
 
-### `Pad` remains an outset -- and is not yet what was decided
+### Padding is an inset, and the frame is a length while the box is a region
 
-Bryan: padding goes outside what it pads; the pad forwards its frame less the
+Bryan, 2026-09-18: padding is an inset. It subtracts from both the child's
-padding and draws the child inside that area, so `rel(1.0)` inside `.pad(16)`
+frame and its box and adds itself to the reported size, so `rel(1.0)` inside
-inside a 450 px share is 418 px. **The experiment does not implement this.**
+padding fills the parent without overflowing. A span's frame never subtracts
-`Pad` still forwards the frame whole and insets only the box:
+siblings; only the padding subtracts from it. No outset kind and no mixed
+kind for now; the name stays `Pad`. Worked example, 900 px row:
 
 ```rust
-let inset = |lead: Px, trail: Px| {
+let row = (rect(Color::RED).width(24), wtext(PARAGRAPH).wrap(true).pad(16)).span(Dir::RIGHT);
-    Place::Within(Part::Of(UiSpan::new(
-        Len::from_parts(Rel::ZERO, lead),
-        Len::from_parts(Rel::ONE, -trail),
-    )))
-};
 ```
 
-so `rel(1.0)` there is 450 and overflows by the padding -- the clipped
+The text is asked in 900 − 24 − 32 = **844** px and wraps there; a
-`text.rs` render. The decided rule cannot be written in the current
+`rel(1.0)` inside the same padding is 900 − 32 = **868** px and overflows the
-representation without a cost Bryan has not seen:
+row by exactly the icon's width. With the pad in a share instead, both are
+the share less 32. An icon *after* the padded text overflows; a user who
+wanted otherwise meant `leftover`.
 
-- Narrowing the child's frame by the padding (`narrow = FULL - 32px`) makes
+**The experiment does not implement this**, and cannot in its representation:
-  that length the child's *box* too, since a narrowed frame is its own box.
+a narrowed frame is its own box there (`frame_and_extent` sets the extent to
-  In a share or a declared box, frame and box coincide and the rule holds.
+`FULL` of it), so 868 for `rel` and 844 for the wrap cannot both hold. `Pad`
-  As a fixed child of a span measured from its cursor, the padded child is
+still insets only the box through `Part::Of` and forwards the frame whole,
-  then asked in `row - 32` rather than `room - 32`: a padded wrapped text
+which makes `rel(1.0)` under it 900. Step 2 below is the representation
-  after a 24 px icon wraps as if the icon were not there and overflows the
+change that expresses the rule.
-  row by 24 px. That row is the commonest thing in the app.
-- Keeping `Part::Of` (status quo) keeps the text wrapping in the room and
-  makes `rel(1.0)` under a pad mean the whole frame.
-- Having both -- `rel` of the frame less padding *and* a box that is the
-  room less padding -- needs the frame to be a length and the box a region in
-  the parent's coordinates, with `Part::From` scaling its span by the frame
-  length. That is a coordinate rewrite of `painter.rs`/`render_state.rs`, not
-  a widget change.
-
-Ask Bryan which. Do not decide it in a worker session.
 
 ### A share never adds room beyond the deciding box
 
@@ -260,7 +248,95 @@ SHRINK_DEPTH=<depth> SHRINK_CASE=<case>`), pinned as a named test in
 `tests/cases/unsettled.rs`, then fixed under the rule above. Do not add a
 second draw back.
 
-### 2. Render and replay
+### 2. Make the frame a length and the box a region
+
+The frame stops being a coordinate system. Coordinates start at a region
+node (or the root) and every box under it is a region in that node's
+coordinates; a widget's frame is a *length* of the node's box, per axis, and
+is only what fractions resolve against:
+
+```rust
+pub struct Painter<'a> {
+    /// This widget's frame as a length of its region node's box, per axis:
+    /// what a fraction it declares or reports, and a `From` span under it,
+    /// are fractions of. A length and not a region, so the box need not be
+    /// the frame -- padding takes from both without either becoming the other.
+    pub(super) frame: UiVec2,
+    /// Where this widget's drawing goes, in the node's coordinates.
+    pub(super) extent: UiRegion,
+    /// The node's box in pixels. The frame in pixels is `frame.to_px(node_px)`
+    /// and the box's is `extent.size().to_px(node_px)`.
+    pub(super) node_px: PxVec2,
+    ...
+}
+
+impl Part {
+    /// Where it lands in the coordinates `extent` is in. A `From` span is in
+    /// the asking widget's frame lengths, which `frame` says in the node's.
+    pub(crate) fn of(self, extent: UiSpan, frame: Len) -> UiSpan {
+        match self {
+            Self::All => extent,
+            Self::From(span) => UiSpan::new(
+                extent.start + span.start.within_len(frame),
+                extent.start + span.end.within_len(frame),
+            ),
+            Self::Of(span) => span.within(&extent),
+        }
+    }
+}
+```
+
+A child's frame is `narrow.within_len(parent.frame)` where the caller or a
+rule narrowed it, else the parent's; a declared length also decides the box
+(`len` placed in the part by alignment, as `frame_and_extent` does today),
+where a caller's `narrow` decides the frame alone and the place decides the
+box. `Pad` then says both halves of the rule:
+
+```rust
+let inset = |lead: Px, trail: Px| {
+    Place::Within(Part::Of(UiSpan::new(
+        Len::from_parts(Rel::ZERO, lead),
+        Len::from_parts(Rel::ONE, -trail),
+    )))
+};
+let less = |lead: Px, trail: Px| Some(Len::from_parts(Rel::ONE, -(lead + trail)));
+let inner = painter
+    .widget_at(
+        &self.inner,
+        [less(self.padding.left, self.padding.right), less(self.padding.top, self.padding.bottom)],
+        [inset(self.padding.left, self.padding.right), inset(self.padding.top, self.padding.bottom)],
+    )
+    .size();
+```
+
+What this changes in the core, and why it is not merely more code:
+
+- `Painter::resolve` becomes `region.within(&self.extent)`; the second
+  `within` through the frame goes.
+- `in_parent` no longer maps a child's frame holds through the frame length
+  per level: every widget under one node holds for the node's pixel box, so
+  the holds `and` directly, and only a region node maps through its box.
+- `Part::of` gains one `within_len` per `From` end. `Of` and `All` are as
+  they were.
+- `DrawInfo::frame`/`frame_abs`, `ActiveData::frame`/`frame_abs`, `local`
+  in `Placing`, `recompose_subtree` and `asked_px` all change meaning:
+  `frame` is a `UiVec2` length, `frame_abs` goes, a node's move entry is the
+  node's frame length anchored at its box start (so `rel` inside means the
+  frame), and `asked_px` walks to the node rather than the root.
+- `Stack` needs a part that is "a box of this length, placed by the child's
+  alignment" (`Part::Sized(Len)`, the same thing a declared length does),
+  since `narrow` no longer makes the box.
+
+The random rig and the shrunk tests do not change. Expected precision is the
+same as today (one `rel × rel` per level of narrowing). Checks: the suite,
+the fast oracle, the 400/5 shrinker, then both long fuzzers; the `many`,
+`resize` and `cold` counters must not move by more than the reposition work
+this removes; and two new tests, `rel(1.0)` inside `.pad(16)` after a 24 px
+icon is 868 px while the wrapped text beside it wraps at 844, and the same
+inside a 450 px share is 418 for both. `examples/text.rs` then renders
+inside its padding.
+
+### 3. Render and replay
 
 Read the installed graphics skill and confirm the renderer. Render `view`,
 `minimal`, `random`, `tabs` and `text` at 1920x1200 against `34cafb6` and
@@ -269,7 +345,7 @@ render at the same size (commands under **Full verification** below). A
 text placed by re-expression rather than a second draw is the change most
 likely to show here; inspect every intentional difference and record it.
 
-### 3. Rename and delete
+### 4. Rename and delete
 
 Rename `ActiveData::offer_part` to `part`, `offer_place` to `asked`, `place`
 to `placed`, and `DrawInfo` likewise; delete `ActiveData::measured` in favour
@@ -277,7 +353,7 @@ of reading `answer`; delete `answers_at` if `resize` is its only caller and
 inline it. Every use was written against the old names on purpose to keep
 the probe's diff readable; do this as one mechanical commit. Suite, oracle.
 
-### 4. Restore the expected retained cost
+### 5. Restore the expected retained cost
 
 Work counters at `3091fb8`, seed 1 and 13, depth 8, widget draws / distinct
 widgets, beside `e44dea3` (#18) and `49cec82` (the branch head before this):
@@ -321,7 +397,7 @@ at seed 1 draws 40 times where #18 drew 13. Two mechanisms, both understood:
 Report every phase at both seeds, work counters first, medians only when the
 work agrees.
 
-### 5. Full verification and landing
+### 6. Full verification and landing
 
 Run, in the experiment checkout:
 
@@ -377,8 +453,6 @@ pin only when the Iris change is ready, and push every coherent commit.
 
 ## Follow-on work, not part of this repair
 
-- The `Pad` decision above, and the coordinate rewrite if Bryan wants both
-  halves of the rule.
 - CPU round-to-nearest and shader nearest-pixel snapping are approved as one
   separately verified change. Neither has landed. Re-derive `Holds::through`
   for the new rounding and run both long fuzzers plus the render set.

docs/LAYOUT.md

@@ -320,11 +320,13 @@ is narrowed by a length its parent decided: a declared `px` or `rel` length,
 or the resolved slot of a `leftover` child. A box a widget reports for itself
 does not narrow its descendants' frame.
 
-`Pad` is an outset: it forwards its frame less the padding, draws the child
+`Pad` is an inset (Bryan, 2026-09-18): it subtracts the padding from both
-inside that area, and reports the child's used size plus padding. A
+the child's frame and the child's box, and reports the child's size plus the
-`rel(1.0)` child inside padding inside a share is a fraction of the resolved
+padding. A `rel(1.0)` child inside padding fills the pad without overflowing
-share less that padding. The mixed "outset pixels, inset fractions and
+it; a wrapping text inside padding wraps at the box the pad was given less
-shares" interpretation is rejected.
+the padding. A span's frame never subtracts siblings, so a padded fixed
+child measured after a 24 px sibling in a 900 px row wraps at 844 while a
+`rel(1.0)` inside it is 868. There is no outset kind and no mixed kind.
 
 A widget draws once, in the box it is asked in; its answer is placed inside
 that box by re-expressing the drawing, and nothing is drawn again in a box an
@@ -333,8 +335,9 @@ decide whether a re-ask can be skipped. A container that puts an answer
 somewhere other than where it asked says so with `Painter::place_at`, which
 never runs the body. A frame is narrowed by a length of the parent's frame,
 never by a region, and is put back into the part by the child's alignment on
-every placement. This is `wip/one-ask` in the experiment checkout; whether
+every placement. This is `wip/one-ask` in the experiment checkout. The
-`Pad` narrows the frame by its padding is still open in `docs/HANDOFF.md`.
+padding rule above needs the frame to be a length and the box a region in
+the region node's coordinates, which is the next step in `docs/HANDOFF.md`.
 
 ## Layout decisions and invariants (2026-09-15 to 2026-09-17)