Annotations

Annotations can be added to elements of a CIF specification, to annotate them with extra information. Annotations are a form of structured data, and the CIF type checker checks their validity. Tools that take CIF specifications as input can process the annotations that are attached to elements of the specification, and use the supplied information.

Annotations differ from comments. Comments can also be used to add additional information to a specification. However, comments are completely free form, as you can write anything in them. They can even be used to (temporarily) comment out some parts of the specification. Furthermore, comments are purely for the benefit of the modeler. They are never interpreted by a tool.

Annotations have two main purposes:

Annotations can be added to most elements of CIF specifications that have a name (like components and variables), or can have a name (like locations and invariants), as well as some other elements (like edges).

The following built-in annotations are bundled with CIF:

Annotations are an extension mechanism, and anyone can define and register their own annotations. Different CIF installations may therefore have different registered annotations. A CIF specification may thus have a warning in one installation, if the annotation is for instance not registered in that installation, while in another installation the annotation does not have a warning, as there it is registered. Different people could define the same annotation in different ways, such that their own installations interpret that annotation differently and impose different constraints for it. Hence, a specification with such annotations may be valid in one installation, and invalid in another.

For more detailed information on annotations, see the reference manual.