The split separates the user manipulation of node information from the back end which does the work of parsing, checking and building of artifacts. As an added benefit Grow starts faster if Growd is already running though Growd will be started if needed. A tabular mode similar to a makefile will be supported along with a GUI mode. Nodes and attributes The crux of a good design for Grow is the information it stores and how versatile it is. Information is stored as nodes with attributes .
Attributes provide for storage of common information and user information.
They take the place of variables in other systems. Note that Grow has taken the route of storing voluminous information to satisfy its correctness , traceabilty , intelligence and trustworthy requirements at the expense of disk space and some speed. Note that some names are reserved. User attributes - these can be queried and used by Grow rules . Last modified timestamp and checksum.