Entry 211

The table generator in Rust

2026-09-27volumes

Filescrates/piney-gencrates/piney-data/src/tablescrates/piney-data/src/lib.rsplans/volumes.mdREADME.md

The generator from 0208 was a Python tool (tools/static.py) that wrote Rust. Its manifest was Python and its layouts were Python classes that printed Rust. That is Rust written from Python. It is now a Rust tool, piney-gen. The port never runs it.

What moved

Python	Rust (`crates/piney-gen/src`)
`static.py`: the layouts, the emitter, finding an entry, rendering	`layout.rs`, `locate.rs`, `render.rs`
`static_manifest.py`	`manifest.rs`
`Type(...)` from Infection's DWARF	`dtype.rs` on its own DWARF 1 reader, `dwarf.rs`
`image.py`'s program image, the `.syms` sidecar	`elf.rs`, `program.rs`
`sinit_tables.py`: `saveSysMsg`, the mail tables' replies	`sinit.rs`, run in `piney-eemu`
`talk_index.py`: the talk records by address	`talk.rs`
the Shift-JIS text and its literals	`text.rs`

The manifest is typed Rust: e("skills", 0x0061_F4A0, array(skill(), 304), GCMN, "..."). Its custom finders (voice_groups, item_icons, the mails, by_volume) are plain functions. The Python manifest's entries were carried over mechanically, docs and all, so nothing was retyped.

Parity

The first full run of piney-gen gen --check matched every committed file byte for byte: all 16 groups, mod.rs, types.rs and sjis.rs. The only change since is the header naming piney-gen. A run takes 9 seconds; the Python took about 8 minutes.

piney-data's sinit.rs, the older output of sinit_tables.py, had no readers left once the tables took over (0208, 0209). It is gone.

The talk index

The talk group (committed just before this entry) holds every talk record array and pointer table reachable from the roots the game keeps: npcTbl's base.msg, spcMsgTbl, the present tables, the breeder's and the Grunty's records and errorData. Each is listed with its address in its own volume, since the save stores those pointers. Infection's DWARF gives each object's kind and count; the later volumes' come through the carry, and an object nothing declares is told by its shape. The port does not read the index yet.

Still in Python

tools/carry.py and the parts of tools/xfer.py it uses make the carry cache, work/analysis/carry/*.json, which piney-gen reads. The symbol transfer that writes the .syms sidecars is Python too. Both move next.

Five older generators also write Rust from Python: statics.py, area_tables.py, dungeon_tables.py, field_tables.py and sound_tables.py. They were built for Infection before the per-volume tables existed. The world's rebuild will need them per volume, and they go into piney-gen then.

Still unknown

Whether the carry's port gives the same cache byte for byte, and so the same tables. Python's difflib matching, which xfer.aligned uses, has to be reproduced exactly, or its differences shown harmless by piney-gen gen --check. The six trade and shop harness failures from 0210 remain until the talk pages read the talk group.