[Cbor] cbor-packed: Circumfix expansion

[Christian Amsüss <[e-mail]>]

Hello Carsten, hello CBOR group,

it occurred to me that a variant of compression is unexplored. Suppose
we have data like (please mentally replace strings with appropriate
numbers) in SenML assuming draft-groves-core-senml-bto:

[{"bn": "urn:dev:ow:X", "bu": "V", "v": 1.992, "t": 1.6e9, "bto": 2},
/* bto indicates all the following items are offset by 2 seconds each */
 {"v": 1.986},
 {"v": 1.874},
 {"v": 1.423},
 ...
]

It'd be tempting to write that as

TBD51([{"v": TBD(0)}], [], [],
  [{"bn": "urn:dev:ow:X", "bu": "V", "v": 2.047, "t": 1.6e9, "bto": 2},
   TBD6'(
     5([-7, 64(h'feefb6...')]) /* [0xfe, 0xef, 0xb6, ...] x 2^-7 */
   )])

which is combining bigfloats and arrays (if they, on their own, can they
be combined that way; otherwise one might be tempted to use second-table
units) to expand to

TBD51([{"v": TBD(0)}], [], [],
  [{"bn": "urn:dev:ow:X", "bu": "V", "v": 2.047, "t": 1.6e9, "bto": 2},
   TBD6'(
     [1.986, 1.874, 1.423]
   )])

and then would use circumfix expansion (a variant on the shared item)
to expand the array into the original one-element dictionary sets. The
rough rule could be that when the nth circumfix expansion is triggered,
the rump is iterated over expanded into the nth shared item (or picked
from another table -- details) with its occurrence of a given tag TBD
replaced with the rump's item at that position.

One straightforward application is like in the example -- generating
repetitive entries from data that can be sent right from some sampling
buffer by using typed arrays.

The straightforward reason not to do this is that it's more complex even
on the decompressor (let alone on the compressor, but that might usually
use manual compression anyway).

I'm not saying we *should* do this (that's what I hope to get from
starting discussion here) -- but if nothing else, it could help shape a
"what kind of compressions are in scope and what's out of scope"
paragraph.

BR
Christian

-- 
To use raw power is to make yourself infinitely vulnerable to greater powers.
  -- Bene Gesserit axiom