SPEC-3: First hack at defining some of the various event related concepts

docs/definitions.rst

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+Definitions
+===========
+
+# *Event* -- A JSON object that represents a piece of information to be
+distributed to the the room. The object includes a payload and metadata,
+including a `type` used to indicate what the payload is for and how to process
+them. It also includes one or more references to previous events.
+
+# *Event graph* -- Events and their references to previous events form a
+directed acyclic graph. All events must be a descendant of the first event in a
+room, except for a few special circumstances.
+
+# *State event* -- A state event is an event that has a non-null string valued
+`state_key` field. It may also include a `prev_state` key referencing exactly
+one state event with the same type and state key, in the same event graph.
+
+# *State tree* -- A state tree is a tree formed by a collection of state events
+that have the same type and state key (all in the same event graph.
+
+# *State resolution algorithm* -- An algorithm that takes a state tree as input
+and selects a single leaf node.
+
+# *Current state event* -- The leaf node of a given state tree that has been
+selected by the state resolution algorithm.
+
+# *Room state* / *state dictionary* / *current state* -- A mapping of the pair
+(event type, state key) to the current state event for that pair.
+
+# *Room* -- An event graph and its associated state dictionary. An event is in
+the room if it is part of the event graph.
+
+# *Topological ordering* -- The partial ordering that can be extracted from the
+event graph due to it being a DAG.
+
+(The state definitions are purposely slightly ill-defined, since if we allow
+deleting events we might end up with multiple state trees for a given event
+type and state key pair.)
+
+Federation specific
+-------------------
+# *(Persistent data unit) PDU* -- An encoding of an event for distribution of
+the server to server protocol.
+
+# *(Ephemeral data unit) EDU* -- A piece of information that is sent between
+servers and doesn't encode an event.
+
+Client specific
+---------------
+# *Child events* -- Events that reference a single event in the same room
+independently of the event graph.
+
+# *Collapsed events* -- Events that have all child events that reference it
+included in the JSON object.