MakeSelector

MakeSelector is a software library and domain-specific language designed to express and apply selectors over structured data and user-interface trees. It provides a uniform syntax to describe elements by type, attributes, relationships, and textual patterns, enabling developers and testers to identify target items without relying on positional queries.

Its features include attribute matching, class or type filters, hierarchical traversal, and logical composition (AND, OR, NOT). It allows wildcard and regular-expression matching, and can be executed against in-memory data structures or serialized manifests. Implementations include language bindings for common programming languages and adapters for data sources such as JSON, XML, or UI trees. Performance features include caching of selector results and incremental evaluation.

In practice, MakeSelector is used to select configuration sections in manifests, UI controls in automated tests, or records in data-processing pipelines. Typical workflows involve building a selector string, applying it to a data store to obtain a subset of items, and then operating on the result set.

Origin and reception: MakeSelector originated in the Make family of tooling to standardize element selection across pipelines. It has influenced related selector frameworks and is referenced in documentation for build automation and testing toolchains. Limitations include possible ambiguity when namespaces are not clearly defined and the need for comprehensive tests for complex data shapes.

See also: selectors, query languages, Makefile tooling, data filtering.