Internet DRAFT - draft-boronine-teleport

draft-boronine-teleport







Internet Engineering Task Force                         A. Boronine, Ed.
Internet-Draft                                        September 27, 2015
Intended status: Informational
Expires: March 30, 2016


                        Minimal JSON Type System
                       draft-boronine-teleport-03

Abstract

   Teleport is a minimal type system designed as an extension of JSON.
   It comes with 10 types sufficient for basic use and provides two
   patterns for extending it with new types.  Teleport's type
   definitions are JSON values, for example, an array of strings is
   defined as {"Array": "String"}.

   Teleport implementations can be used for data serialization, input
   validation, for documenting JSON APIs and for building API clients.

   This document provides the mathematical basis for Teleport and can be
   used for implementing libraries.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on March 30, 2016.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2015 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of



Boronine                 Expires March 30, 2016                 [Page 1]

Internet-Draft              Abbreviated Title             September 2015


   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Conventions and Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  Syntax  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Type Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  JSON Schemas  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   5.  Mathematical Basis  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     5.1.  Concrete Types  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     5.2.  Generic Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   6.  Built-in Concrete Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   7.  Built-in Generic Types  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   8.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   9.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   10. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     10.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     10.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Appendix A.  Mailing List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6

1.  Introduction

   In Teleport, a type is a relation between a type definition and a
   value space.  For example:

      t("Integer") = {0, -1,  1, -2,  2, -3,  3, ...}

   Here "Integer" is a type definition and t("Integer") is the set of
   all values this type can take.  The t function is used to represent
   this relationship.

   Because Teleport is based on JSON, all value spaces are sets of JSON
   values.  More interestingly, type definitions are JSON values too,
   which makes it trivial to share them with other programs.

   Teleport's design goals is to be a natural extension of JSON, be
   extremely lightweight, and extendable not only with rich types but
   with high-level type system concepts.






Boronine                 Expires March 30, 2016                 [Page 2]

Internet-Draft              Abbreviated Title             September 2015


2.  Conventions and Terminology

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

   The terms "JSON", "JSON text", "JSON value", "member", "element",
   "object", "array", "number", "string", "boolean", "true", "false",
   and "null" in this document are to be interpreted as defined in RFC
   4627 [RFC4627].

2.1.  Syntax

   Throughout this document, an extended JSON syntax is used.  Unquoted
   strings are symbols representing JSON values, sets and functions.
   Also, the following set theory syntax is used:

   a :: A      Set A contains element a.

   D -> C      The set of functions that map values from set D to values
               from set C.

3.  Type Patterns

   Types defined simply by a string, like "Integer" above, are called
   concrete.  Teleport ships with 7 concrete types.

   A generic type maps a set of schemas to a set of value spaces.  Each
   pair in the mapping is called an instance.  For example, {"Array":
   "Integer"} is an instance of the Array type.

   Three generic types are provided: Array, Map and Struct.  Their
   precise definition is provided in the following sections, but these
   examples should be enough to understand how they work:

      ["foo", "bar"]       :: t({"Array": "String"})

      {"a": 1, "b": 2}     :: t({"Map": "Integer"})

      {"name": "Alexei"}   :: t({"Struct": {
                                   "required": {"name": "String"},
                                   "optional": {"age": "Integer"}})

4.  JSON Schemas

   Schema, one of the build-in concrete types, is made possible by the
   fact that type definitions are JSON values.  The Schema type is




Boronine                 Expires March 30, 2016                 [Page 3]

Internet-Draft              Abbreviated Title             September 2015


   useful to specify APIs.  For example, to describe a function you can
   use this:

      t({"Struct": {
           "optional": {},
           "required": {
              "input": "Schema",
              "output": "Schema"}}}

5.  Mathematical Basis

   The set of all JSON values is called V.  A subset of V is called a
   value space and the set of all value spaces is called S.

      V = {null, true, false, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, ...}

      S = {{}, {null}, {null, true}, {null, ...}, ...}

   There is a certain function t that maps JSON values to value spaces.

      t :: (V -> S)

   This document does not give a full definition of the t function, it
   merely provides some instances of its inputs and outputs.  Expanding
   the definition of the t function is the basis for extending Teleport.

5.1.  Concrete Types

   x is of concrete type c if and only if

   1.  c is a string

   2.  x :: t(c).

5.2.  Generic Types

   x is of generic type g if and only if

   1.  g is a string

   2.  x :: t({g: p}) for some p

6.  Built-in Concrete Types

   JSON      t("JSON") is the set of all JSON values.  This type can be
             used as a wildcard for type-checking or as a noop for
             composable serialization.




Boronine                 Expires March 30, 2016                 [Page 4]

Internet-Draft              Abbreviated Title             September 2015


   Schema    t("Schema") is the set of all type definitions, including
             all strings representing concrete types as well as every
             instance of every generic type.

   Decimal   t("Decimal") is the set of all numbers.  This type
             represents real numbers and arbitrary-precision
             approximations of real numbers.

   Integer   t("Integer") is the set of all numbers that don't have a
             fractional or exponent part.

   String    t("String") is the set of all strings.  Note that JSON
             strings are sequences of Unicode characters.

   Boolean   t("Boolean") is a set containing the JSON values true and
             false.

   DateTime  t("DateTime") is the set of all strings that are valid
             according to RFC 3339 [RFC3339].  This type represents
             typestamps with optional timezone data.

7.  Built-in Generic Types

   x :: t({"Array": p}) if and only if

      x is an array

      e :: t(p) for every element e in x

   x :: t({"Map": p}) if and only if

      x is an object

      v :: t(p) for every pair (k, v) in x

   x :: t({"Struct": p}) if and only if

      p is an object.  If p has the key "required", p.required must be
      an object, similarly if p has the key "optional", p.optional must
      be an object.  If p has both, the names in these two objects must
      be disjoint, that is, they cannot have a pair of members with the
      same name.

      x is an object.  The name of every member of p.required is also
      the name of a member of x.

      For every pair (k, v) in x, there is a pair (k, s) in either
      p.required or p.optional such that v :: t(s).



Boronine                 Expires March 30, 2016                 [Page 5]

Internet-Draft              Abbreviated Title             September 2015


      NOTE: the definition of Struct implies that its parameter p can
      contain arbitrary metadata in the form of other object members.

8.  IANA Considerations

   This memo includes no request to IANA.

9.  Security Considerations

   All drafts are required to have a security considerations section.
   See RFC 3552 [RFC3552] for a guide.

10.  References

10.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, DOI 10.17487/
              RFC2119, March 1997,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC3339]  Klyne, G. and C. Newman, "Date and Time on the Internet:
              Timestamps", RFC 3339, DOI 10.17487/RFC3339, July 2002,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3339>.

   [RFC4627]  Crockford, D., "The application/json Media Type for
              JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)", RFC 4627, DOI
              10.17487/RFC4627, July 2006,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4627>.

10.2.  Informative References

   [RFC3552]  Rescorla, E. and B. Korver, "Guidelines for Writing RFC
              Text on Security Considerations", BCP 72, RFC 3552, DOI
              10.17487/RFC3552, July 2003,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3552>.

Appendix A.  Mailing List

   Comments are solicited and should be addressed to the working group's
   mailing list at teleport-json@googlegroups.com and/or the author.

Author's Address

   Alexei Boronine (editor)

   Email: alexei@boronine.com




Boronine                 Expires March 30, 2016                 [Page 6]