THE PHILOSOPHY — aid the operator, never decide for the operator (Jordan 2026-08-27)

kerfmaster pin list · The spec — what we build to

rulingA decision by Aristide or Jordan. True because it was decided; it can be superseded, but it cannot be stale.

Content last changed 2026-08-27 — computed from the item itself, not typed.

Ruling (Jordan, 2026-08-27), verbatim: 'We are aware that this overrules the rule we had set for pierce points always on the bottom right, but remember that was a bias not a hard rule, and now you know why it was not a hard rule. Operator can always make these decisions. We are here to aid the operator, not to decide things for the operator. That is the whole philosophy of our software, we need to wrap ourselves around the workflow of the customer instead of forcing the customer to adhere to our limitations.'

• What it settles, in general form: our defaults are STARTING POINTS (table-resolved spacing, lower-right pierce bias, start-clock, rotation limits) — the software computes them, displays them as the current value, and steps aside when the operator picks otherwise. The record of the pick beside the ruled value is the guardrail; a hard block is a defect unless safety demands it (cut-order safety, comp interference and the like keep their gates).
• Precedents already consistent with it: the 2026-08-24 per-contour right-click override ('override whatever value came from this table'), the margin ruling's operator shrink, the not-a-floor correction, and now the flip-every-other-column trick that trades the pierce-side bias for a whole extra column.
• Where it binds us: when designing any pipeline stage, the question is not 'what is the right value' but 'what seeds the value, how does the operator change it in one move, and where is the change recorded.' Features that cannot be overridden per job/contour are out of spec by default.