Re: [boost] [Fwd: reformatter for boost c++ code?]

From: William E. Kempf (williamkempf_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-05-31 11:29:04

----- Original Message -----
From: "Larry Evans" <jcampbell3_at_[hidden]>
> Would boost be interested in using this semdesigns reformatter?
> One question is where we'd put the code.  I guess whoever
> is in charge of checking the boost submittals would keep it,
> but I suppose that rotates from one person to another.  I'd be
> happy to test the beta and show the results.

What a coincidence.  I started searching for a "code beautifier" for use
with my own Boost coding just yesterday.  Here's a list of the ones I've
found and my comments:

* ArtisticStyle - The most recommended beautifier on the Usenet, but I
really didn't care for what it did to my souce code.  An example, the
tss::get method got formatted like this:

        void* tss::get
            () const
            {
                slots_type* pdata = get_tss_data();

                if (pdata)
                {
                    if (m_key >= pdata->size())
                        return 0;

                    return (*pdata)[m_key];
                }

                return 0;
            }

That's definately *NOT* the style I told it to format things in, and most of
the code was formatted correctly, so it's probably a bug.  But that rules
this one out.

* cbvan - Basically only replaces tabs with spaces and unifies indent size.
I've a python script that does this much, so this one is ruled out.

* retabc - Produced some poor formatting in a few cases, but mostly just
doesn't provide much control over the formatting.  Good for replacing tabs
with spaces and unifying indent size, but that's about it.

* gc (Great Code) - Appears that it may work, though there are a lot of
style options and not all of them are intuitive, so configuring it to get
the output I want is difficult and will take a lot of refinement.  It's just
not what I'd consider "production quality", though I can probably make it
work for me.  It's also Windows only, so won't be a solution for many others
on Boost.

> Ira Baxter wrote:
>
> > Larry,
> >
> > I think we'd be happy to provide
> > a source formatter, no charge,
> > provided you're happy to work with
> > a Beta and you tell people that
> > you are using it.

I never thought to ask if any of the commercial offerings might let us use
them for free.

I'd be interested in trying this out as well.  I'm not sure how this would
work for Boost in general.  It probably would have to be optional, and the
developers would likely be the ones responsible for using it before check
in.  But a good beautifier would definately be beneficial to me, at least.

Bill Kempf