Version 3.1.0: Various changes and improvements

[Intuity]

This PR introduces a number of changes and improvements to the library from real-world use:

• Packtype grammar (i.e. .pt files) updates:
  • New variants keyword, which can be used for feature-flagging or allowing different activities to lag the bleeding edge;
  • New 'normative points' syntax, which can be used for declaring key items in an architectural specification that can then be used as anchors in prose, models, or coverage;
• PackedAssembly gains a recursive tree printer, which can display complex structures allowing for easier reading of constituent fields;
• PackedArray now extends from Numeric which allows it to be used in comparisons, it also gains a __str__ method to allow it to be printed with ease;
• Minor optimisations to BitVector which yield a small performance improvement;
• Extensions to a range of utility methods to better handle core types, add support for copying instances, diffing two types, and more;
• Moves the minimum Python version forward to 3.12 - this allows for a number of useful type hinting behaviours.

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This PR introduces version 3.1.0 with several enhancements and improvements to the packtype library. The main additions include a new variants feature for conditional compilation, a copy utility function for packtype instances, a diff utility for comparing packtype objects, and improved string representations with tree-style formatting. Additional improvements include better test coverage, documentation updates, and bug fixes.

Key changes:

• Added variants feature to support conditional definitions in packtype grammar
• Implemented utility functions for copying and comparing packtype instances
• Enhanced string representation with tree-style formatting for nested structures
• Added normative points support for marking priority levels

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 46 out of 46 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
vscode/packtype/syntaxes/packtype.tmLanguage.json	Added syntax highlighting for variants and default keywords
tests/utils/test_utils_basic.py	Added comprehensive tests for new diff, diff_table, copy utilities and enhanced get_width tests
tests/svg/test_struct_svg.py	Updated to use sys.executable instead of hardcoded python3
tests/pysyntax/test_union.py	Updated test assertions to match new tree-style string formatting
tests/pysyntax/test_struct.py	Updated test assertions and added test for max_depth parameter in tree printing
tests/pysyntax/test_array.py	Added tests for array comparison and string representation
tests/integration/test_sv.py	Updated to use sys.executable instead of hardcoded python3
tests/grammar/test_variant.py	Added comprehensive tests for the new variants feature
tests/grammar/test_union.py	Added test for copying union instances
tests/grammar/test_struct.py	Added test for copying struct instances
tests/grammar/test_scalar.py	Added test for copying scalar instances
tests/grammar/test_normative.py	Added tests for the new normative points feature
tests/grammar/test_enum.py	Added test for copying enum instances
tests/grammar/test_descriptions.py	Fixed import statement formatting
pyproject.toml	Updated version to 3.1.0 and added tabulate dependency
packtype/utils/union.py	Refactored normalization function with improved documentation and type checking
packtype/utils/struct.py	Refactored normalization function with improved documentation and type checking
packtype/utils/package.py	Added get_all_types utility and fixed ScalarType import
packtype/utils/enum.py	Added is_enum utility and improved normalization function
packtype/utils/basic.py	Added copy, diff, and diff_table utilities; enhanced get_name for arrays
packtype/utils/init.py	Exported new utility functions
packtype/types/package.py	Added support for normative points and refactored filtering methods
packtype/types/normative.py	Added new NormativePoint class for priority marking
packtype/types/bitvector.py	Fixed typo and optimized window width computation
packtype/types/base.py	Added copy and deepcopy guards to enforce using utils.copy
packtype/types/assembly.py	Refactored string representation to use tree-style formatting with depth control
packtype/types/array.py	Made PackedArray inherit from Numeric and added string representation
packtype/start.py	Added variant support to CLI commands and updated type hints
packtype/grammar/transformer.py	Added variant transformation logic and TransformerError class
packtype/grammar/packtype.lark	Added grammar rules for variants and normative points
packtype/grammar/grammar.py	Added variant flattening logic in parse functions
packtype/grammar/examples/package_b.pt	Removed example file
packtype/grammar/examples/package_a.pt	Removed example file
packtype/grammar/declarations.py	Added variant and normative declaration classes
mkdocs.yml	Added variants documentation to navigation
examples/variants/test.sh	Added test script for variants example
examples/variants/spec.pt	Added variants example specification
docs/syntax/variants.md	Added comprehensive variants documentation
docs/syntax/union.md	Updated package naming in examples from MyPackage to ThePackage
docs/syntax/struct.md	Updated package naming in examples from MyPackage to ThePackage
docs/syntax/scalar.md	Updated package naming in examples from MyPackage to ThePackage
docs/syntax/package.md	Updated package naming in examples from MyPackage to ThePackage
docs/syntax/instance.md	Updated package naming in examples from MyPackage to ThePackage
docs/syntax/enum.md	Updated package naming in examples from MyPackage to ThePackage
docs/syntax/docstrings.md	Updated package naming in examples from MyPackage to ThePackage
docs/syntax/constant.md	Updated package naming in examples from MyPackage to ThePackage

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (2)

tests/pysyntax/test_struct.py:1

• This assertion compares struct_a_copy to itself instead of checking all three values. Should be assert struct_a == struct_a_copy == struct_a_equals.

# Copyright 2023-2025, Peter Birch, mailto:peter@intuity.io

tests/pysyntax/test_union.py:1

• This assertion compares union_a_copy to itself instead of checking all three values. Should be assert union_a == union_a_copy == union_a_equals.

# Copyright 2023-2025, Peter Birch, mailto:peter@intuity.io

---

💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.

[OisinRobinson]

These changes look good to me.