Re: [dtn] BPv7 CDDL and CBOR tagging

[Carsten Bormann <[e-mail]>]

(CBOR WG: replying on
https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/dtn/3qn38t9lYR_e-7IicyARKfimLPk
as this is an interesting use case of specialization.)

Thanks!  This already looks pretty good (once I fix the three cases of line-wrapping).

> On Apr 10, 2019, at 04:17, Brian Sipos <[e-mail]> wrote:
> 
> The reference program can be tested as in:

For me, the tool has the problem that it can’t generate

 (block-type-specific-data .cbor ext-data-hop-count)

With the former being

block-type-specific-data = bstr / #6.24(bstr)

What you are trying to say is that the bstr in there conforms to “.cbor ext-data-hop-count”, but the tool is applying the .cbor to the choice, and its brain is too small for that.

I think some unraveling is required to properly address this.

I would probably define a generic for this (sorry for the long names):

optionally-tagged—embedded-cbor<T> = T / #6.24(T)

block-type-specific-data = optionally-tagged-embedded-cbor<bstr>

And then, e.g.:

$extension-block-structure /= [
 block-type-code: 7,
 extension-block-number,
 block-control-flags,
 crc-type,
 optionally-tagged-embedded-cbor<(bstr .cbor ext-data-previous-node)>
 ? crc-value
]

OK, for readability maybe add

embedded-cbor-optionally-tagged<E> = optionally-tagged-embedded-cbor<bstr .cbor E>

and then 

$extension-block-structure /= [
 block-type-code: 7,
 extension-block-number,
 block-control-flags,
 crc-type,
 embedded-cbor-optionally-tagged<ext-data-previous-node>
 ? crc-value
]

That is not wonderful, as it repeats the fact that the thing is optionally tagged “embedded CBOR” all over the individual block type definitions, but it starts enabling focus on the actual structure again.

(I’m still not entirely convinced that the tag 24 here is very useful, but I’m trying to play along the design.)

Grüße, Carsten


PS.: If I were writing this, I’d also add

extension-block-of<N, T> = [
 block-type-code: N,
 extension-block-number,
 block-control-flags,
 crc-type,
 embedded-cbor-optionally-tagged<T>
 ? crc-value
]

And then just say

$extension-block-structure /= extension-block-of<7, ext-data-previous-node>

but how much abstraction to add is a matter of preference; this at least gets rid of the “sprinkle the structure all over the place” problem.