Re: [Cbor] A CBOR tag for alternatives/unions, request for comments

[Michael Peyton Jones <[e-mail]>]

I do think we would prefer to keep the overlapping encoding. Many other
kinds of CBOR encodings have redundancy, starting right from the basics
with the encoding of numbers.

We believe that not only is this approach consistent, but it's actually
helpful: it allows users to decide whether they care more about flexibility
or regularity. If you want, you *can* just encode everything with the long
form and not worry about the compact form. This simplicity is sometimes
helpful.

Of course, we can (and should) require that the canonical version be the
most compact.

Best wishes,
Michael

On Wed, 23 Feb 2022 at 15:06, Emile Cormier <[e-mail]>
wrote:

> On Wed, Feb 23, 2022 at 10:48 AM Carsten Bormann <[e-mail]> wrote:
>
>> I’m not currently proposing to standardize this, but the cbor diagnostic
>> tools support a transform to tunnel CBOR data items through JSON [0]:
>>
>> $ echo "122(h'1234')" | diag2cbor.rb | cbor2json.rb -j
>> {
>>   "@@!t122": {
>>     "@@!b": "EjQ"
>>   }
>> }
>>
>> This works by hijacking JSON object keys starting with @@!; I’m not sure
>> the code handles all cases so we have achieved full transparency yet, but
>> that is a SMOP [1].
>>
>> Grüße, Carsten
>>
>> [0]:
>> https://github.com/cabo/cbor-diag/blob/master/lib/cbor-transform-j.rb
>> [1]: SMOP = Small matter of programming
>>
>
> I was thinking something as simple as:
>
> [<alt_index>, <value>]
>
> where <alt_index> is a JSON number and <value> is the datum transcoded to
> JSON. However, transcoding this back to CBOR would be lossy without any
> other context.
>


-- 

*Michael Peyton Jones*
Software Engineering Lead | London, UK

Website: www.iohk.io <http://iohk.io>
Skype: michael.s.pj
Twitter: @mpeytonjones
PGP Key ID: 29F64616

[image: Input Output] <http://iohk.io>

[image: Twitter] <https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK> [image: Github]
<https://github.com/input-output-hk> [image: LinkedIn]
<https://www.linkedin.com/company/input-output-global>


This e-mail and any file transmitted with it are confidential and intended
solely for the use of the recipient(s) to whom it is addressed.
Dissemination, distribution, and/or copying of the transmission by anyone
other than the intended recipient(s) is prohibited. If you have received
this transmission in error please notify IOHK immediately and delete it
from your system. E-mail transmissions cannot be guaranteed to be secure or
error free. We do not accept liability for any loss, damage, or error
arising from this transmission