rostype

rostype is a Python library designed to facilitate the creation and manipulation of ROS (Robot Operating System) message and service types. It allows developers to work with ROS type definitions programmatically, enabling tasks such as parsing ROS `.msg` and `.srv` files, introspecting the structure of messages and services, and generating code representations. The library aims to provide a robust and efficient way to interact with ROS type system metadata outside of the standard ROS build tools.

The core functionality of rostype involves parsing these type definition files. It can understand the various fields within a ROS message, including primitive types, arrays, and nested message types. Similarly, it can parse service definitions, identifying the request and response components. Once parsed, rostype provides an abstract representation of these types, making it easy to query information like field names, data types, and array dimensions.

Beyond introspection, rostype can also be used to generate code or other data structures based on ROS type definitions. This can be useful for creating bindings in different programming languages, generating documentation, or performing static analysis on ROS codebases. The library is particularly valuable for developers working on tooling, simulation environments, or cross-language ROS integrations where direct interaction with the type system is required. It aims to be a developer-friendly tool for understanding and leveraging the structure of ROS communication protocols.