fix: stabilize learning path, reliability and legacy Windows builds

Unify beginner syntax while preserving compatibility, repair ownership and parser guards, add verified distribution tooling and VC6 Windows 98 build inputs, and clarify documentation and release status. Preserve DOS build-input line endings and exclude generated binaries/caches.

tools/validate_reliability.py

@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+"""Run the maintained ownership, malformed-input, nesting and safety regressions."""
+from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor
+import json
+import os
+from pathlib import Path
+import subprocess
+import sys
+import tempfile
+
+ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1]
+EXTRA = ['validate_learning_ownership.py', 'validate_value_ownership.py', 'validate_call_depth_guard.py',
+         'validate_nesting_guards.py', 'validate_http_hardening.py',
+         'validate_trusted_command_docs.py']
+
+
+def main():
+    scripts = sorted((ROOT / 'tools').glob('validate_*cleanup.py'))
+    scripts += [ROOT / 'tools' / name for name in EXTRA]
+    assert len(scripts) == len(set(scripts)), 'Duplicate reliability checks'
+    assert all(path.is_file() and path.stat().st_size for path in scripts), 'Missing or empty reliability check'
+    logs = Path(tempfile.mkdtemp(prefix='claro-reliability-', dir=os.environ.get('TMPDIR')))
+
+    def run(path):
+        try:
+            result = subprocess.run([sys.executable, str(path)], cwd=ROOT, text=True, capture_output=True, timeout=180)
+            output = result.stdout + result.stderr
+            status = result.returncode
+        except subprocess.TimeoutExpired as error:
+            output = f'TIMEOUT: {error}'
+            status = 124
+        log = logs / (path.stem + '.log')
+        log.write_text(output, encoding='utf-8')
+        return {'test': path.name, 'exit': status, 'log': str(log), 'skipped': output.startswith('SKIP:')}
+
+    with ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=4) as pool:
+        results = list(pool.map(run, scripts))
+    (logs / 'results.json').write_text(json.dumps(results, indent=2), encoding='utf-8')
+    for result in results:
+        status = 'FAIL' if result['exit'] else ('SKIP' if result['skipped'] else 'PASS')
+        print(status + ': ' + result['test'])
+        if result['exit']:
+            print(Path(result['log']).read_text()[-6000:])
+    failed = sum(result['exit'] != 0 for result in results)
+    skipped = sum(result['skipped'] for result in results)
+    print(f'Reliability checks: {len(results)} total, {failed} failed, {skipped} skipped')
+    print('Results:', logs / 'results.json')
+    return 1 if failed else 0
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    raise SystemExit(main())