Simplified Python#

We use a simplified version of Python as the universal language to be transpiled into the respective implementation languages (such as C#, Java etc.). This simple Python supports only a certain subset of language constructs and built-in functions. The language is used for defining data structures and operations, contracts and scripting de/serialization.

As the scripts are not used by the wide audience, but only by the developers of the library, we intentionally decide on-the-go which Python features to support. Hence we only transpile a very limited subset of builtin functions and types.

Disallowed Features#

We allow no:

• Nested functions,
• Context managers, and
• Custom intermediate classes (e.g., classes which are not directly transpiled and used by the user such as data structures)

String Formatting#

To facilitate the transpilation to languages such as C++ and Golang, we decide to use old string formatting:

>>> '%s has %03d quote types.' % ("Python", 2))
'Python has 002 quote types.'

Supported Language Constructs#

For-loops#

For-loops can loop either over lists, over maps or over for _ in range(..., ...) where both start and end are given as integers.

Include Markers#

Since we only provide a transpilation based on a subset of Python language, we will have to include manually defined code snippets at many spots. The developer should mark such spots with include markers using NotImplementedError.

For example:

raise NotImplementedError('some-marker')

will make the code generators introduce an include marker some-marker in the generated code. The filler script will eventually replace the include markers with the corresponding code snippets written in the implementation language.