Issue237: Add type to AlphaNodes for introspection

[EthanEChristian]

A quick addition for #237

@mrrodriguez @WilliamParker

[mrrodriguez]

So the id part of #237 has already been done?

Also, should it perhaps be fact-type to be clearer?

[EthanEChristian]

yes, and i have updated it to be fact-type

[MrMikeRodriguez]

wrong account

[mrrodriguez]

So final question is does this work ok with the durability layer?

I believe we would be relying on the value of fact-type to be able to be serializable (via the fressian impl currently). I think this is on the rulebase too. Can this value be of any arbitrary type or is it restricted to things like symbols (naming a class), keywords, or other Clojure literal-expressed data structures?
ie. do different :fact-type-fn's open up the door for this to not be something that can be serialized with the built-in rulebase durability impl?

[EthanEChristian]

@mrrodriguez,
For the Durability question, I would expect that any type provided would already have to be serializable as we have to serialize the alpha-roots, ie.

{fact-type [AlphaNode]}

It wouldn't be unreasonable to believe that a user could provide a fact-type-fn that produced something that wasn't serializable, but that would have tanked durability before these changes as well. Additionally, i would think that based on the contract(fressian-handlers), that in the event that a fact-type-fn like this was provided then the user should also provide the appropriate handlers.

[mrrodriguez]

#450 (comment)

@EthanEChristian that makes sense to me. I wasn't positive we were already serializing this same value - but indeed that should be the same thing.

[mrrodriguez]

When this is done, does #237 need closed?

[EthanEChristian]

Yes, once this goes in i was going to close it.

I was trying to knock this out in an attempt to get better generated function names for #261 and #291

[WilliamParker]

LGTM; agreed with your analysis of the issues around rulebase serialization @EthanEChristian .

[EthanEChristian]

Alright, I am going to merge this and get #237 closed out