feat: add spec for namespace configs

[hperl]

This PR adds the first version of the Ory Permission language spec to the repo.

Two (last) open issues:

• Type unions
• Type representation of subject sets

[hperl]

@zepatrik @aeneasr I'm now done with the spec. We landed on a design that is a strict subset of TypeScript, which will enable us to use a whole lot of tooling, starting with type information to guide the user, linting (with eslint) to detect common problems etc.

The configuration language is still easy enough to map directly to the Zanzibar AST, as I have documented in the spec.

Once the spec is merged, I will add a diagram through mermaid.js. I already started, but keeping the diagram up to date with the spec changes was tedious during the draft.

/cc @vinckr

[hperl]

/cc @kevgo

[kevgo]

Thanks for writing this up! This is really cool, I'm very excited to start playing with this idea more! I consider this idea of using TS syntax pre-alpha stage, so here comes relatively fundamental feedback. Curious what you think!

[hperl]

@kevgo thank you for your comments. I addressed your suggestions, and especially liked the improved wordings for related and permits.

Some of the things you mentioned (adding keywords, builtins), can be moved to a next version of the spec, as they will be backwards-compatible.

The only thing that is still open is the discussion about == vs ===. I find comparison irritating in JS as well and would rather define simple semantics in our language. If we just pick ===, then it feels strange to not have ==. Having both (with same or different semantics) would be confusing as well. I would argue for just having == and forbidding ===.

@aeneasr @zepatrik WDYT?

[kevgo]

Awesome collaboration on this, thanks for all the thoughful comments! I totally agree with keeping this as simple as possible. Another round of feedback after sleeping over it again. This is coming along nicely!

[hperl]

Awesome collaboration on this, thanks for all the thoughful comments! I totally agree with keeping this as simple as possible. Another round of feedback after sleeping over it again. This is coming along nicely!

Agreed! I just incorporated the latest comments and am quite happy with the result. I noticed that we can sidestep the equality discussion because we are only testing for set membership for now anyways (and there are good arguments for it staying that way).

[kevgo]

The next round of feedback. I limit the amount of ideas in each review to keep them manageable. What do you think?

[hperl]

TODO

• remove metadata
• parens in boolean expr

[hperl]

address review comments

All comments addressed :)

[kevgo]

Excellent, that's all the feedback I have from my end. Next steps after the last changes of the spec are done:

• polish of the language using grammarly.com (I can do this, want to wait after all other edits are done since this will cause lots of conflicts with concurrent edits)
• format this file using Prettier

[zepatrik]

Very nice 👍

[kevgo]

Here are the suggestions from grammarly.com. Mostly removing passive voice. Please run Prettier again after you add these changes.

[hperl]

Excellent, that's all the feedback I have from my end. Next steps after the last changes of the spec are done:

• polish of the language using grammarly.com (I can do this, want to wait after all other edits are done since this will cause lots of conflicts with concurrent edits)
• format this file using Prettier

Thanks, @kevgo! I (think) I applied all of your suggestions.

[kevgo]

This has turned out really nice! Can't wait to build some permission sets in it!