fruml

fruml is a fictional data description language and interchange format used in this article to illustrate wiki-style documentation. It is intended to provide a compact, human-readable way to define structured data and to facilitate validation and interoperability across software components. The design goal of fruml is to balance simplicity with enough expressiveness to capture common data modeling needs, while remaining easy to implement in a range of programming environments.

In fruml, models are organized into named objects with fields. Each field has a type such as string, number, boolean, or composite types like list and map. Fields can be marked as optional or required, and constraints can be attached as annotations. The language favors an indentation-based structure and a minimal set of primitives, enabling straightforward parsing and incremental loading. Fruml also supports references to other models, enabling modular composition and reuse.

Interoperability and usage: fruml documents are designed to be translated into JSON, YAML, or binary formats, depending on application needs. They are well-suited for configuration files, API payload definitions, and message schemas in distributed systems. Several reference implementations exist to demonstrate parsing, validation, and code generation in popular programming languages.

History and status: The term fruml originated in hypothetical design discussions used to illustrate language design concepts. A draft specification and multiple reference implementations appear in educational materials and prototypical repositories. In practice, fruml remains a teaching and exploration artifact rather than a widely adopted standard.