LDWG meeting minutes, April 8, 2019

Attendees

Pull Request: https://github.com/p4lang/p4-spec/pull/717
This feature generalizes the language to allow structs to be initialized at declaration.
There was some discussion of whether the pull request allows nested structs. The grammar allows it.
There was also discussion of possible default values.
It is not clear how ambiguity should be resoled.
Action Item: Interested parties should continue to comment on the pull request to further develop the feature.

There was a long discussion of how to support programs that require selection of hash functions managed by the control plane.
Possible features include overlays, call-by-reference, or structs.
There are various tradeoffs due to the resources required and the way that thee p4c front-end is implemented.
While several other use cases might benefit from language extensions in these directions (e.g., dynamic action selection, recirculation), for now, the group does not feel like adding other changes.