Project Argonauts - Format

Project Argonauts - Format.md

Project Argonauts - Format

This file contains thoughts, ideas and hopefully a format for Project Argonauts.

• It should wrap around existing data as much as possible

Contents

• Strictly declarative; nothing that "runs"
• Type system with simple templates
  • Instantiation is done by the argonauts compiler before generating code
• Comments
• C-like syntax
  • // ... and /* ... */ for comments
  • Statements end with ;
  • Blocks with { and }
• Built-in types
  • Need to be supported by all languages
  • 8/16/32/64bit signed/unsigned integers
  • Double, String, Boolean, List<Type>, Map<Key, Value>, Binary?
  • Value: can be anything
• Custom definable types
  • Enum: Contains a set of entries
  • Struct: Contains a set of members (name -> type)
  • Variant: Can be different things
  • Aliases
• Some way to describe extra data (for both structs, enums, members, aliases, enum entries etc. etc.)
  • Examples:
    • Documentation data (human readable name, description, examples)
    • Validation data (constraints)
    • Extra layout information (indexes, other information that allows optimizations)
  • Java-style annotations? (@Annotation(...args...)
  • Doxygen-style comments for documentation stuff?
  • Something else?

Enum

// unless overriden, places using the OrganizationType type will have Commercial as the default
@Default(OrganizationType::Commercial)
enum OrganizationType<UInt8> {
	// the numbers are for tighter packing
	@Doc(title="Commercial Organization", description="Says that this is a **commercial** organization")
	Commercial = 0;
	Voluntary = 1;
	Governmental = 3;
}

Struct

struct Person {
	@Validate.MinLength(3)
	/* attribute name comes before type (easier to read) */
	name String;
	salary UInt32;
	@Validate.Pattern(/((Senior|Junior) .*)|(Chief [^ ]* Officer)/)
	title String;
}
struct HelicopterOwner {
	model String;
}
// a Manager is BOTH a person and a helicopter owner
struct Manager : Person, HelicopterOwner {
	/* each string needs to be at least 3 characters */
	@Validate.Value.MinLength(3)
	subordinates List<String>;
}

Variant

// an Employee is EITHER a person or a manager
@TypeColumn("type")
variant Employee : Person, Manager;

Alias

alias Department : Map<String, List<Employee>>;

Binding it together

@Doc(description="Describes an organization")
struct Organization {
	type OrganizationType;
	@Validate.Value.MinSize(1)
	departments Map<String, List<Employee>>;
}