refactor proposal, replace manual ser/der with auto generated

[dvdsk]

• Improves readability
• Eliminates offset/cast/masking errors
• Speeds up further development

Implementation steps:

• Replace the serialize/deserialize functions for structs representing bitfields (1) with proc-macro annotations.
• Build a custom serde data format, implement it for the remaining structs (I did this for zstacker and it worked great.

I have looked at all the bitfield crates, I think bilge is a great fit. It handles enums well. The crate bitbybit would work too.

I would not mind taking a go at implementing this. We could do one bitfield first to see what it would look like.

(1): such as

ziggurat/src/ieee_802154.rs

Line 64 in 46fbd25

pub fn deserialize(bytes: &[u8]) -> Result<(Self, &[u8]), &'static str> {

[puddly]

Thank you! I think this would be very useful to have. From what I recall, there are really only a few formats for payloads:

1. Frame control bitfield byte that controls the presence of subsequent fields.
2. Discriminator payloads, where the frame control field includes a "frame type" that drastically changes the layout of the following fields. This is something that I just split into distinct structs right now.
3. Static header and then an array of repetitive fields, consumed entirely during deserialization.

I'll take a look at the two crates you mentioned and see which one fits the data structures better.

[dvdsk]

I'm looking through the Zigbee spec atm to find NwkRouteRequestCommand. Do you have tips on finding the spec for the various commands?

Oh and please do not feel pressured to answer quickly. I have some time on my hands now, you may not, that's normal.

[puddly]

The one you'd be looking the most at is this one: https://csa-iot.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/05-3474-23-csg-zigbee-specification-compressed.pdf (page 290 for the command format definition and 383 for the actual command handling). The TLVs are a R23 addition and aren't really used by any devices at the moment.

[dvdsk]

I've tried some things, unfortunately an off the shelve solution is not going to work :(

The combination of lists and bit fields is not supported by serde (the rust serialization/de-serialization framework) nor any of the bitfield crates.

One thing I might still try is write a quick proc macro (a domain specific language) for us to specify zigbee commands in. Looking at the standard there is still a lot. That proc macro will be its own crate.

[dvdsk]

implemented in #12