C++ Guide

The C++ implementation is header-only and builds on compile-time metadata macros rather than runtime reflection.

Minimum Version

• C++17

Implementation Model

• Types declare schema metadata with ASUN_FIELDS(...) and ASUN_TYPES(...).
• Text and binary decode both use the target type T.
• There is no standalone ASUN map type. Use entry structs plus std::vector.

Current Support

• Compact text encode/decode
• Pretty text encode/decode
• Binary encode/decode
• std::optional, std::vector, nested structs, struct arrays

Binary decode is not self-describing. You decode into a target type such as decode_bin<T>(...).

Core API

#include "asun.hpp"

std::string encode(const T &value);
std::string encode_typed(const T &value);
std::string encode_pretty(const T &value);
std::string encode_pretty_typed(const T &value);

T decode<T>(std::string_view text);
std::vector<T> decode_vec<T>(std::string_view text);

std::vector<uint8_t> encode_bin(const T &value);
T decode_bin<T>(std::span<const uint8_t> data);

Example

struct User {
    int64_t id;
    std::string name;
    bool active;

    ASUN_FIELDS(id, name, active)
    ASUN_TYPES("int", "str", "bool")
};

Notes

• The public schema surface still only uses int, float, str, and bool.
• C++ metadata macros are the bridge between host types and common ASUN wire format.
• For keyed data, use an entry type such as struct Attr { std::string key; int64_t value; };.

Build and Test

cd asun-cpp
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build
ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure