Re: [boost] Clang: Open-source C/C++ front end under development

From: Andrew Sutton (asutton_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-09-01 17:04:08

>> Cool... I've been wanting something like this for a while. Out of
>> curiosity - and this probably isn't the best place to ask - but I
>> noticed one of their stated goals is to support source code
>> engineering tasks like refactoring, etc. The problem is that
>> compilers aren't necessarily that good at that type of work in that
>> they require _correct_ and probably preprocessed source code. Is
>> there any indication on whether or not this project will support
>> partial and incomplete parsing?
>
> Hmm, I would expect complete and build source before I try any
> refactoring -- so that I can run tests before and after and veryfy
> nothing broke. I believe Eclipse requires all files to be saved before
> refactoring (this is in Java)

Not necessarily so. Refactorings are essentially transformations on  
the structured text, and most can be done regardless of whether or  
not the code is actually in a compilable state. Others require  
information beyond what the compiler can give (e.g., propagating the  
change of a class name to files outside the current translation  
unit). This also implies that you don't necessarily have to run the  
preprocessor before trying to run a refactoring. Other code-related  
tasks don't even need to parse the entire the program, but just need  
to extract the "superstructure" of some code (think UML diagram).

Andrew Sutton
asutton_at_[hidden]