Merge pull request #356 from ejgallego/serlib+readme_gadt

[serlib] [doc] Add some readme with serlib documentation.

serlib/README.md

@@ -1,5 +1,105 @@
 ## Serlib README
 
-### Builtins
+Welcome to `coq-serlib` README.
 
-### 
+`coq-serlib` is a library that declares missing serialization
+functions (from/to JSON, sexp), comparison, and hash functions for
+most Coq datatypes, allowing users to serialize full ASTs faithfully
+for example, and many other interesting use cases.
+
+`coq-serlib` also includes support for [Coq's extensible syntax]() and
+plugins.
+
+### Builtins and Configuration
+
+`serlib` provides some builtins and configuration values in the
+`Serlib_base` and `Serlib_init` modules.
+
+### Serializing opaque and private types
+
+`serlib` uses `ppx_import` to retrieve the original type definitions
+from Coq; when these are not available, we provide some helpers in the
+`SerType` module. Current helpers are:
+
+- `Biject`: use when it is convenient to provide an isomorphic type to
+  the one that is "opaque".
+- `Pierce`: use when it is not possible to access the type, you really
+  want to use a copy + `Obj.magic`
+- `Opaque`: when you want to declare the type as non-serializable
+
+**note**: use of `Obj.magic` is now prohibited, all the type piercings
+need to use the `Pierce` functor.
+
+### Serializing GADTS
+
+Unfortunately, it is not possible to easily serialize GADTS. For now,
+we use a very ugly workaround: we basically copy the original Coq
+datatype, in non-GADT version, then we pierce the type as their
+representation is isomorphic.
+
+We will use an example from https://github.com/coq/coq/pull/17667#issuecomment-1714473449 :
+
+```ocaml
+type _ gen_pattern = GPat : Genarg.glob_generic_argument -> [ `uninstantiated ] gen_pattern
+```
+
+In this case, we could indeed derive a serialization function (try
+`[@@deriving of_sexp]` for example), however full serialization is
+harder, so we may need to provide an alternative data-type:
+
+```ocaml
+module GenPatternRep : SerType.Pierceable1 = struct
+
+    type 'a t = 'a Pattern.gen_pattern
+
+    type _ _t = GPat of Genarg.glob_generic_argument
+       [@@deriving sexp,yojson,hash,compare]
+end
+
+module GenPatternSer = SerType.Pierce1(GenPatternRep)
+type 'a gen_pattern = GenPatternSer.t [@@deriving sexp,yojson,hash,compare]
+```
+
+and here you go! The main problem with this approach is that it
+requires a manual check for each use of `Pierce` and each Coq
+version. Fortunately the numbers of `Pierce`'s so far have been very
+low.
+
+### Pre-release checks
+
+Due to the above, when updating SerAPI for a new release to OPAM, we
+must check that the definitions we are piercing are up to date.
+
+I perform this check with Emacs + Merlin for OCaml:
+
+- I do `vc-git-grep` for `Pierce(` and `Pierce1(`
+- For each use, I use merlin to jump to the original type
+- I compare update these types
+
+That's painful, but takes like 10 minutes, so for now it is doable a
+couple of times a year. To illustrate, these are the current
+occurrences to check:
+
+```
+serlib/plugins/ltac2/ser_tac2expr.ml:module T2E = Serlib.SerType.Pierce(T2ESpec)
+serlib/plugins/ltac2/ser_tac2expr.ml:module GT2E = Serlib.SerType.Pierce(GT2ESpec)
+serlib/ser_cooking.ml:module B_ = SerType.Pierce(CIP)
+serlib/ser_environ.ml:  include SerType.Pierce(PierceSpec)
+serlib/ser_float64.ml:include SerType.Pierce(PierceSpec)
+serlib/ser_impargs.ml:module B_ = SerType.Pierce(ISCPierceSpec)
+serlib/ser_names.ml:include SerType.Pierce(MBIdBij)
+serlib/ser_names.ml:    include SerType.Pierce(PierceSpec)
+serlib/ser_names.ml:  include SerType.Pierce(PierceSpec)
+serlib/ser_numTok.ml:  include SerType.Pierce(PierceSpec)
+serlib/ser_opaqueproof.ml:module B_ = SerType.Pierce(OP)
+serlib/ser_opaqueproof.ml:module C_ = SerType.Pierce(OTSpec)
+serlib/ser_rtree.ml:include SerType.Pierce1(RTreePierce)
+serlib/ser_sList.ml:include SerType.Pierce1(SL)
+serlib/ser_safe_typing.ml:module B_ = SerType.Pierce(PC)
+serlib/ser_sorts.ml:include SerType.Pierce(PierceSpec)
+serlib/ser_stateid.ml:include SerType.Pierce(SId)
+serlib/ser_univ.ml:  module PierceImp = SerType.Pierce(PierceSpec)
+serlib/ser_univ.ml:  include SerType.Pierce(PierceSpec)
+serlib/ser_univ.ml:  include SerType.Pierce(ACPierceDef)
+serlib/ser_vmemitcodes.ml:module B = SerType.Pierce(PierceToPatch)
+```