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-rw-r--r--docs/abi-spec.rst13
1 files changed, 7 insertions, 6 deletions
diff --git a/docs/abi-spec.rst b/docs/abi-spec.rst
index 7c9d9f9e..f31d9d45 100644
--- a/docs/abi-spec.rst
+++ b/docs/abi-spec.rst
@@ -102,18 +102,19 @@ them.
|:ref:`struct<structs>` |``tuple`` |
+-------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
-Formal Specification of the Encoding
-====================================
+Design Criteria for the Encoding
+================================
-We will now formally specify the encoding, such that it will have the following
-properties, which are especially useful if some arguments are nested arrays:
-
-Properties:
+The encoding is designed to have the following properties, which are especially useful if some arguments are nested arrays:
1. The number of reads necessary to access a value is at most the depth of the value inside the argument array structure, i.e. four reads are needed to retrieve ``a_i[k][l][r]``. In a previous version of the ABI, the number of reads scaled linearly with the total number of dynamic parameters in the worst case.
2. The data of a variable or array element is not interleaved with other data and it is relocatable, i.e. it only uses relative "addresses".
+
+Formal Specification of the Encoding
+====================================
+
We distinguish static and dynamic types. Static types are encoded in-place and dynamic types are encoded at a separately allocated location after the current block.
**Definition:** The following types are called "dynamic":