(Optional) type information about proposal-binary-ast HOT 2 OPEN

Yes, we had early specs on how to store/strip such data with the previous format.

On the other hand, it's low-priority at the moment. We first want to ship something that works fast, and then we'll think of additional metadata!

from proposal-binary-ast.

I've had this on my mind. Not in terms of some explicit support for type-annotations, but rather some generic facility for annotating the AST in-line with extension attributes.

These could be used to associate various pieces of information that could be used by tooling (stripped before release), and allow for a simple and straightforward processing of a single data structure across a variety of transformations and annotations.

You could do type annotations, in-line source-notes (for debug builds, reducing workflow complexity and number of artifacts), or any other arbitrary data.

Now, whether it's feasible in practice or not is something that requires careful consideration. I can sense some of the counter-arguments that might be made (e.g. possibility of hidden payloads in BinAST files, security issues, etc.). It's a good idea but it needs to be thought about carefully.

from proposal-binary-ast.