Hello, everyone,

I've added the tree API to lp:~wtachi/helenos/bithenge. It's possible to
create a tree and print it as JSON or a Python literal. Note that
internal nodes are polymorphic, so it isn't necessary for the whole tree
to be loaded in memory.

The next step is to design and implement the domain-specific language. I
will do this incrementally: start with basic features, design them,
implement them, and make an example, then move on to more advanced
features, and so on. I will post an update after each step, especially
after each part of the design. This is different from the schedule I
gave in my proposal, but my goal for July 1st is the same: a program
that can use a format specification file to interpret data and dump it
in JSON format.

When I spent time thinking about the language design before, I was
considering using a constraint-based design. Most of the other projects
I investigated used an imperative design, where the format specification
is always used in a fixed order, one step at a time. The imperative
design causes problems when the user wants to modify a field, because
arbitrary changes to other fields may be necessary that cannot be
determined from the format specification.

I wanted to solve this with a constraint-based design, where the format
specification consists of statements that must be true about the raw and
interpreted data, and the program figures out how to solve these
constraints.  Unfortunately, this approach seems too open-ended and
unpredictable to fit within GSoC. Instead, I will make a more
straightforward program with the imperative design, but I will keep the
constraint-based approach in mind when designing the language, so it
could be implemented in a future project.

The final dates of my vacation have been determined: Jul. 1 through Jul.
14, with no other vacations. I will have limited time to spend on my
project, but I should be able to complete the spillover currently listed
in my schedule.

Thanks,
Sean Bartell

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