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What's New in Version 4 (Draft)

Morphir IR v4 introduces significant architectural changes to support a polyglot, tool-friendly ecosystem.

Key Changes​

1. Document Tree Layout​

v4 introduces a Document Tree distribution mode (.morphir-dist/), alongside the Classic single-blob mode.

  • Granular Files: One file per type/value definition.
  • Incremental Builds: Compilers can touch specific files.
  • Shell Friendly: Standard tools (grep, find) can inspect the IR.

2. Removal of Generic Parameters​

The generic type attribute parameter a (present in v1-v3) has been removed.

  • Structured Attributes: Replaced by explicit TypeAttributes and ValueAttributes structures.
  • Standardization: Attributes now have a standard schema including source location and constraints.

3. Canonical String Naming​

Names, Paths, and Fully-Qualified Names now serialize to canonical strings instead of arrays.

  • Readability: "Morphir/SDK:List#map" instead of nested arrays.
  • Keys: Names can now be used directly as JSON object keys.
  • Legacy Support: Array decoding is still supported for backward compatibility.

4. Canonical Module Definitions (module.json)​

First-class support for module.json manifests, allowing modules to be defined flexibly within the Document Tree.

Migration Guide​

(Coming Soon: Guide for migrating v3 IR to v4)