📄 Parsing — Input File Introduction¶

🛩️ Fly-in Input System¶

The project receives a .txt file describing:

the drone count
all available zones
zone metadata
all graph connections
movement constraints

The parser is responsible for:

reading the file
validating syntax
validating rules
converting raw text into internal objects

📦 Example Input File¶

# Drone count
nb_drones: 5

# Start and end zones
start_hub: hub 0 0 [color=green]
end_hub: goal 10 10 [color=yellow]

# Regular zones
hub: roof1 3 4 [zone=restricted color=red]
hub: roof2 6 2 [zone=normal color=blue]
hub: corridorA 4 3 [zone=priority color=green max_drones=2]
hub: tunnelB 7 4 [zone=normal color=red]
hub: obstacleX 5 5 [zone=blocked color=gray]

# Connections
connection: hub-roof1
connection: hub-corridorA
connection: roof1-roof2
connection: roof2-goal
connection: corridorA-tunnelB [max_link_capacity=2]
connection: tunnelB-goal

🧾 File Structure¶

The parser reads the file line by line.

Each line may represent:

drone count
zone declaration
connection declaration
comments
empty lines

💬 Comments¶

Lines starting with # are comments.

comments are ignored by the parser
comments may appear anywhere
empty lines should also be ignored

Example:

# This is a comment

🔢 Drone Count¶

The first mandatory entry defines:

nb_drones: <number>

Example:

nb_drones: 5

Rules¶

must exist
must be a positive integer
only one definition is allowed

📍 Zone Definitions¶

Type	Example	Rules
🟢 Start Zone	`start_hub: hub 0 0`	- Exactly one start zone must exist - Coordinates are mandatory - Coordinates are always integers
🔴 End Zone	`end_hub: goal 10 10`	- Exactly one end zone must exist - Coordinates are mandatory - Coordinates are always integers
🔵 Regular Zone	`hub: roof1 3 4`	- Zone names must be unique - Coordinates are mandatory - Coordinates are integers

🚫 Invalid Zone Names¶

Invalid	Valid
`my-zone`	`my_zone`
`my zone`	`roof1`

Rules¶

zone names cannot contain spaces
zone names cannot contain dashes (-)

📦 Optional Metadata¶

Zones may include optional metadata inside:

[ ... ]

Example:

hub: roof1 3 4 [zone=restricted color=red]

Metadata order does not matter.

🏷️ Zone Metadata¶

Metadata	Example	Rules
`zone=<type>`	`zone=restricted`	Allowed values: `normal`, `restricted`, `priority`, `blocked`
`color=<value>`	`color=red`	Optional single-word string
`max_drones=<number>`	`max_drones=2`	Must be a positive integer

🔗 Connection Definitions¶

Connections define graph edges.

Syntax¶

connection: zoneA-zoneB

Example:

connection: roof1-roof2

↔️ Connection Rules¶

Connections are:

bidirectional

Meaning:

A-B

allows:

A → B
B → A

🚫 Invalid Connections¶

Connections are invalid if:

zones do not exist
duplicate edges exist
syntax is malformed

Example duplicates:

A-B
B-A

📦 Connection Metadata¶

Connections may also contain metadata:

[max_link_capacity=N]

Example:

connection: A-B [max_link_capacity=2]

Rules¶

optional
positive integer only

⚠️ Parsing Validation¶

The parser should validate:

duplicated zones
duplicated connections
invalid metadata
invalid zone types
invalid capacities
malformed syntax
missing start/end zones
invalid coordinates

🚨 Error Handling¶

Any parsing error should:

stop parsing immediately
return a clear error message

Ideally including:

line number
reason of failure

Example:

Line 12:
Invalid zone type: lava

🧠 Parsing Goal¶

The parsing system should transform the raw .txt file into:

graph structures
zone objects
connection objects
metadata structures

that will later be used by:

pathfinding
simulation
scheduling
visualization systems