piqi-0.5.5 release

CHANGES

@@ -1,3 +1,107 @@
+Piqi 0.5.5 (April 12, 2011)
+===========================
+
+Highlights:
+
+  - Multi-format data serialization for Erlang (JSON, XML, Protocol Buffers)
+  - Piqi-RPC -- an RPC-over-HTTP system for Erlang
+  - Support for XML encoding
+  - Function definitions in the Piqi language
+  - Piqi getopt -- type-based command-line arguments parsing
+
+Backward-incompatible changes:
+
+  - "piqirun" Erlang application is renamed to "piqi" (contains the old
+    "piqirun.erl" and some new functionality). The new application runs a
+    supervisor and some servers which are used by Piqi-RPC and multi-format data
+    serialization (see below).
+
+  - (piqic ocaml, piqic erlang) Both Piqi compilers now generate
+    "<Mod>_piqi.ml|.erl|.hrl" instead of "<Mod>.ml|.erl|.hrl". For OCaml it is
+    still possible to specify the name of the output file explicitly using "-o"
+    parameter. OCaml and Erlang module names can be also set using
+    "ocaml-module" and "erlang-module" directly in the .piqi file.
+
+  - (ocaml) Generated OCaml serialization functions (i.e. gen_<typename>) now
+    accept 1 arguments instead of 2. Old functions accepting 2 arguments are
+    renamed to gen__<typename>. The removed argument is an integer tag for a
+    Protobuf field -- there's rarely a need to specify it explicitly.
+
+Important changes in Erlang serialization:
+
+  - Generated Erlang serialization functions (i.e. gen_<type>/2) can also accept
+    only 1 argument. It is now possible to use gen_<type>(X) instead of
+    gen_<type>('undefined', X).
+
+  - Calling piqirun:init_from_binary/1 is no longer necessary as all
+    parse_<typename>/1 functions will accept Erlang binaries.
+
+Other changes:
+
+  - (piqirun-erlang) Improved error reporting when deserializing incomplete
+    data: a special 'not_enough_data' exception will be thrown in such case.
+  - (json) Wrapping top-level primitive values into {"_": <value>} object to
+    conform with JSON RFC4627 specification.
+  - Piqi-light syntax improvements for better readability.
+  - Don't generate {<field>: null} for optional fields missing in JSON records.
+  - Tests will now work even if Protocol Buffers is not installed.
+  - (piqirun-ocaml) Remove "Stream" layer and use channels directly in the input
+    buffer.
+
+Bug fixes:
+
+  - (erlang) Fixed incorrect Erlang mapping for some built-in types (problem was
+    introduced in 0.5.4 release).
+  - (erlang) A proper support for records with no fields.
+  - (piqic ocaml) crash on imports of built-in aliases (Issue #2).
+  - (make ocaml-install) Fixed installation of OCaml libraries which conflicted
+    with installation of OCaml dependencies (Issue #1).
+
+New functionality (XML support):
+  - "piqi convert" can now convert data between Protobuf, XML, JSON and Piq
+    formats. Other Piqi commands that rely on conversion functionality, such as
+    "piqi getopt", can work with XML as well.
+
+New functionality (XML, JSON and Piq serialization for Erlang):
+
+  - "piqic-erlang-ext" -- a command-line Piqi compiler (an extended version of
+    "piqic erlang" command). It generates Erlang code for
+    serializing/deserializing data XML, JSON, Piq, Protobuf formats.
+  - piqi_tools.erl -- Erlang bindings for Piqi tools implemented as Erlang
+    port running "piqi server".
+
+New functionality (miscellaneous):
+
+  - Support for serializing top-level values of primitive types (ocaml, erlang,
+    piqi tools, all formats).
+  - (piqirun-erlang, piqirun-ocaml) New functions for encoding/decoding
+    length-delimited blocks (gen_block/parse_block). Compatible with similar
+    functionality in Protocol Buffers.
+  - (piqic-ocaml, piqic-erlang) Support for generating default values for types:
+    'piqic ocaml|erlang --gen-defaults ...'.
+  - A new "piqi getopt" command interprets idiomatic command-line arguments as
+    Piq data object (according to a Piqi type spec) and converts it to JSON,
+    XML, Piq and Protobuf formats.
+  - Piqi-RPC -- an PRC-over-HTTP system for Erlang (see below).
+  - Performance tests for Erlang serialization to/from Protobuf, JSON, XML, Piq.
+
+New functionality (Piqi-RPC):
+
+  - Support for function definitions in the Piqi language, all the Piqi tools,
+    compilers, OCaml, Erlang and Protocol Buffer mappings.
+  - A new "piqi server" command that talks Piqi-RPC over Unix pipe and exposes
+    data conversion functionality.
+  - A new "piqi call" -- Piqi-RPC command-line client that interprets
+    command-line arguments as input parameters for remote functions and
+    communicates with Piqi-RPC servers via HTTP or Unix pipe.
+  - piqi-rpc -- an Erlang application containing runtime support libraries and
+    HTTP interface for Piqi-RPC.
+  - "piqic-erlang-rpc" -- a command-line Piqi compiler and server stubs
+    generator for Piqi-RPC/Erlang.
+  - A new "piqic expand" command. It is similar to "piqi expand" but also sets
+    piqic-specific fields, such as OCaml and Erlang names.
+
+
 Piqi 0.5.4 (December 19, 2010)
 ==============================
 

README

@@ -4,33 +4,40 @@ OVERVIEW
 Piqi is a set of languages and open-source tools for working with structured
 data. It includes:
 
-        * A cross-language data serialization system compatible with Google
-        Protocol Buffers. It allows programs implemented in various languages to
-        exchange and persist data in a portable manner.
-
-        * High-level data representation (Piq) and data definition languages
-        (Piqi).
-
-        * Tools for validating, pretty-printing and converting data between
-        Piq, JSON and portable binary encoding.
-
-As a data serialization system, Piqi follows a static approach, when high-level
-data specification is used to generate static code for serializing and
-deserializing data structures.
-
-Piqi implements native support for OCaml and Erlang programming languages.
-Connectivity with other languages is provided via Google Protocol Buffers.
-
-In fact, Piqi was inspired by Google Protocol Buffers and specially designed to
-be largely compatible with it. Like Protocol Buffers, Piqi relies on type
+    - A cross-language data serialization system compatible with Google Protocol
+      Buffers. It allows programs implemented in various languages to exchange
+      and persist data in a portable manner.
+
+    - Piq -- a human-friendly typed data representation language. It is designed
+      to be more convenient for representing, viewing and editing data than
+      JSON, XML, CSV, S-expressions and other formats.
+
+    - Piqi -- a powerful data definition language. It is specially designed to be
+      used with Piq, but also works as a schema language for other data formats
+      including JSON, XML and Protocol Buffers binary format. Tools for
+      validating, pretty-printing and converting data between Piq, JSON, XML and
+      Protocol Buffers binary format.
+
+    - Piqi-RPC -- an RPC-over-HTTP system for Erlang. It provides a simple way to
+      expose Erlang services via JSON, XML and Google Protocol Buffers over
+      HTTP.
+
+As a data serialization system, Piqi implements native support for OCaml and
+Erlang. Connectivity with other programming languages is provided via Google
+Protocol Buffers. Overall, Piqi provides a more natural mapping to functional
+programming languages compared to various serialization systems that were
+originally designed for imperative or object-oriented languages.
+
+Piqi was inspired by Google Protocol Buffers and specially designed to be
+largely compatible with it. Like Protocol Buffers, Piqi relies on type
 definitions and supports data schema evolution. The main difference is that Piqi
-has a richer data model, high-level modules and a human-friendly data
-representation language (Piq).
+has a richer data model, high-level modules and a powerful data representation
+language (Piq).
 
 The combination of data representation (Piq) and data definition (Piqi)
 languages is similar to the concept of "valid XML" (i.e. XML conforming to some
 XML Schema). However, unlike XML, Piq has a concise, clean syntax and a data
-model similar to those of high-level programming languages such as ML.
+model similar to those of high-level programming languages.
 
 
 FURTHER INFORMATION
@@ -69,7 +76,7 @@ FILES
   piqilib/              Piqi common library
   piqirun-ocaml/        Piqi runtime library for OCaml
   piqi-erlang/          Piqi runtime library and Piqi tools bindings for Erlang
-  piqi-rpc/             an RPC over HTTP system for Erlang
+  piqi-rpc/             Piqi-RPC -- an RPC-over-HTTP system for Erlang
   examples/             examples
   tests/                tests for various piqi functionality; see tests/README
   editors/              text editor plugins for .piq and .piqi files

VERSION

@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.5.5-dev
+0.5.5