When working with binary data, how to know if old[:3] is a portal or data?

[mitar]

So when working with binary data and bytes parser, how does one know what does:

[:3] = old[:3]

Mean. Is it setting it to literally old[:3], is it a portal?

[toomim]

Yes, old is a portal. We definitely need to make this section clearer. It's on my list for revision.

You could also make a portal to an old version with something like v("38ah32hasfh")[:3]. The specific syntax is (probably) up to the Parser. This needs to be clarified. Unfortunately, we haven't actually implemented this yet, so it isn't terribly fleshed out.

In other words, distinguishing how a portal is specified is up to the Parser. We haven't written the spec for bytes yet, but if I were to write it, I would propose using the term old for a portal to the last version.

[mitar]

Hmmm. If this is all depending on the parser, then what exactly are we standardizing? So then we should probably standardize behavior of few standard parsers and define for them how to implement those general features, e.g., parser.

Given that you agree that this should be clarified, let's reopen the issue until it is clarified?

[toomim]

Braid-Patch standardizes a way to connect a Parser to a Merge algorithm via a partial ordering of replacement operations.

[mitar]

Let's close then this as a duplicate of #13.

[mitar]

I also opened #14.