Regex library comments

From: David Abrahams (abrahams_at_[hidden])
Date: 2000-09-13 14:53:25

I'm trying to use it with VC6sp3 on Windows 2000.

I'm excited to see it work!

------
First, a remark on the code: it's full of long functions with many levels of
nesting and many switch statements. I recognize that regular language
interpreters are a special breed, but this reminds me of the bad-old-days of
'C' programming, before I learned to break things down into digestible
pieces. I find the "big monolithic function" style of programming leads to
maintainance and readability problems. Does it have to be this way?

----------

Trying to build the library using vc6.bat causes problems. First of all,
since none of the objects or libs exists initially, I get:

Microsoft (R) Program Maintenance Utility   Version 6.00.8168.0
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp 1988-1998. All rights reserved.

 del *.obj
Could Not Find c:\prj\manhattan\inc\alien\libs\regex\lib\*.obj
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: 'del' : return code '0x1'
Stop.

Then, if I just delete all of those "del" commands, I still have a problem:

Microsoft (R) Program Maintenance Utility   Version 6.00.8168.0
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp 1988-1998. All rights reserved.

 nmake -fvc6lib.mak CFG="Release" LIBNAME=mre200

Microsoft (R) Program Maintenance Utility   Version 6.00.8168.0
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp 1988-1998. All rights reserved.

Warning: cannot find "mre200.dep"
 cl.exe /nologo /ML /W3 /GX /O2 /I..\..\..\ /D BOOST_RE_LOCALE_W32 /D
"WIN32" /D "NDEBUG" /D "_MBCS" /D "_LIB" /Fp".\mre200.pch" /YX /Fo".\\"
/Fd".\mre200" /FD /c ..\src\re_psx.cpp
re_psx.cpp
 cl.exe /nologo /ML /W3 /GX /O2 /I..\..\..\ /D BOOST_RE_LOCALE_W32 /D
"WIN32" /D "NDEBUG" /D "_MBCS" /D "_LIB" /Fp".\mre200.pch" /YX /Fo".\\"
/Fd".\mre200" /FD /c ..\src\re_psxw.cpp
re_psxw.cpp
 cl.exe /nologo /ML /W3 /GX /O2 /I..\..\..\ /D BOOST_RE_LOCALE_W32 /D
"WIN32" /D "NDEBUG" /D "_MBCS" /D "_LIB" /Fp".\mre200.pch" /YX /Fo".\\"
/Fd".\mre200" /FD /c ..\src\re_thrd.cpp
re_thrd.cpp
 cl.exe /nologo /ML /W3 /GX /O2 /I..\..\..\ /D BOOST_RE_LOCALE_W32 /D
"WIN32" /D "NDEBUG" /D "_MBCS" /D "_LIB" /Fp".\mre200.pch" /YX /Fo".\\"
/Fd".\mre200" /FD /c ..\src\regex.cpp
regex.cpp
 cl.exe /nologo /ML /W3 /GX /O2 /I..\..\..\ /D BOOST_RE_LOCALE_W32 /D
"WIN32" /D "NDEBUG" /D "_MBCS" /D "_LIB" /Fp".\mre200.pch" /YX /Fo".\\"
/Fd".\mre200" /FD /c ..\src\fileiter.cpp
fileiter.cpp
 cl.exe /nologo /ML /W3 /GX /O2 /I..\..\..\ /D BOOST_RE_LOCALE_W32 /D
"WIN32" /D "NDEBUG" /D "_MBCS" /D "_LIB" /Fp".\mre200.pch" /YX /Fo".\\"
/Fd".\mre200" /FD /c ..\src\cregex.cpp
cregex.cpp
 cl.exe /nologo /ML /W3 /GX /O2 /I..\..\..\ /D BOOST_RE_LOCALE_W32 /D
"WIN32" /D "NDEBUG" /D "_MBCS" /D "_LIB" /Fp".\mre200.pch" /YX /Fo".\\"
/Fd".\mre200" /FD /c ..\src\c_regex_traits.cpp
c_regex_traits.cpp
 cl.exe /nologo /ML /W3 /GX /O2 /I..\..\..\ /D BOOST_RE_LOCALE_W32 /D
"WIN32" /D "NDEBUG" /D "_MBCS" /D "_LIB" /Fp".\mre200.pch" /YX /Fo".\\"
/Fd".\mre200" /FD /c ..\src\cpp_regex_traits.cpp
cpp_regex_traits.cpp
 cl.exe /nologo /ML /W3 /GX /O2 /I..\..\..\ /D BOOST_RE_LOCALE_W32 /D
"WIN32" /D "NDEBUG" /D "_MBCS" /D "_LIB" /Fp".\mre200.pch" /YX /Fo".\\"
/Fd".\mre200" /FD /c ..\src\w32_regex_traits.cpp
w32_regex_traits.cpp
 cl.exe /nologo /ML /W3 /GX /O2 /I..\..\..\ /D BOOST_RE_LOCALE_W32 /D
"WIN32" /D "NDEBUG" /D "_MBCS" /D "_LIB" /Fp".\mre200.pch" /YX /Fo".\\"
/Fd".\mre200" /FD /c ..\src\c_regex_traits_common.cpp
c_regex_traits_common.cpp
 link.exe -lib @C:\DOCUME~1\DAVIDA~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\nma01248.
 copy "mre200.lib" "C:\tools\msvc6\VC98\lib\mre200.lib"
        1 file(s) copied.
 nmake -fvc6lib.mak CFG="Release" LIBNAME=mre200m MULTITHREAD="1"

Microsoft (R) Program Maintenance Utility   Version 6.00.8168.0
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp 1988-1998. All rights reserved.

Warning: cannot find "mre200m.dep"
 link.exe -lib @C:\DOCUME~1\DAVIDA~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\nma01368.
 copy "mre200m.lib" "C:\tools\msvc6\VC98\lib\mre200m.lib"
        1 file(s) copied.
 nmake -fvc6lib.mak CFG="Debug" LIBNAME=mre200d

Microsoft (R) Program Maintenance Utility   Version 6.00.8168.0
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp 1988-1998. All rights reserved.

Warning: cannot find "mre200d.dep"
 link.exe -lib @C:\DOCUME~1\DAVIDA~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\nma01248.
 copy "mre200d.lib" "C:\tools\msvc6\VC98\lib\mre200d.lib"
        1 file(s) copied.
 copy "mre200d.pdb" "C:\tools\msvc6\VC98\lib\mre200d.pdb"
The system cannot find the file specified.
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: 'copy' : return code '0x1'
Stop.
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: 'C:\tools\msvc6\VC98\BIN\NMAKE.EXE' : return code
'0x2'
Stop.

--------

I just ended up running the line I needed from vc6.mak:
    nmake -fvc6lib.mak CFG="Debug" LIBNAME=mre200dm MULTITHREAD="1"

but YIKES! it copies the library right into my vc6 installation! Am I wrong
to be surprised, even worried?

--------
Then, there are some warnings I get from vc6. It's just wrong in most cases,
but here are the fixes:

*** c:/temp/detail/boost/detail/jm_cfg.hpp Mon Aug  7 11:09:14 2000
--- c:/prj/manhattan/inc/alien/boost/detail/jm_cfg.hpp Wed Sep 13 15:04:24
2000
***************
*** 726,740 ****
  inline void BOOST_RE_CALL jm_destroy(T* t)
  {
     t->~T();
  }

! inline void BOOST_RE_CALL jm_destroy(char* t){}
! inline void BOOST_RE_CALL jm_destroy(short* t){}
! inline void BOOST_RE_CALL jm_destroy(unsigned short* t){}
! inline void BOOST_RE_CALL jm_destroy(int* t){}
! inline void BOOST_RE_CALL jm_destroy(unsigned int* t){}
! inline void BOOST_RE_CALL jm_destroy(long* t){}
! inline void BOOST_RE_CALL jm_destroy(unsigned long* t){}

  template <class T>
--- 726,742 ----
  inline void BOOST_RE_CALL jm_destroy(T* t)
  {
     t->~T();
+    (void)t; // suppress incorrect MSVC compiler warning
  }

!    // dwa 9/13/00 - remove unused argument names to suppress compiler
warnings
! inline void BOOST_RE_CALL jm_destroy(char*){}
! inline void BOOST_RE_CALL jm_destroy(short*){}
! inline void BOOST_RE_CALL jm_destroy(unsigned short*){}
! inline void BOOST_RE_CALL jm_destroy(int*){}
! inline void BOOST_RE_CALL jm_destroy(unsigned int*){}
! inline void BOOST_RE_CALL jm_destroy(long*){}
! inline void BOOST_RE_CALL jm_destroy(unsigned long*){}

  template <class T>

*** c:/temp/detail/boost/detail/regmatch.hpp Mon Aug  7 11:09:14 2000
--- c:/prj/manhattan/inc/alien/boost/detail/regmatch.hpp Wed Sep 13 15:06:46
2000
***************
*** 50,55 ****
--- 50,58 ----

     typedef typename traits_type::string_type traits_string_type;
     const traits_type& traits_inst = e.get_traits();
+    // dwa 9/13/00 suppress incorrect MSVC warning - it claims this is
never
+    // referenced
+    (void)traits_inst;

     // try and match a single character, could be a multi-character
     // collating element...
***************
*** 291,296 ****
--- 294,302 ----
     *restart = first;
     iterator base = first;
     const traits& traits_inst = e.get_traits();
+    // dwa 9/13/00 suppress incorrect MSVC warning - it claims this is
never
+    // referenced
+    (void)traits_inst;

     // prepare m for failure:
     /*
***************
*** 1057,1062 ****
--- 1063,1071 ----
     I base = first;
     bool need_init;
     const traits& traits_inst = e.get_traits();
+    // dwa 9/13/00 suppress incorrect MSVC warning - it claims this is
never
+    // referenced
+    (void)traits_inst;

     flags |= match_init;