Re: [boost] Scalpel: a Spirit&Wave-powered C++ source code analysis library

Subject: Re: [boost] Scalpel: a Spirit&Wave-powered C++ source code analysis library
From: Florian Goujeon (florian.goujeon_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-09-03 18:22:06

Hi Doug,

On 09/03/2010 05:04 PM, Doug Gregor wrote:

> Having a good, open-source C++ parser library that could support such
> tools would be wonderful. However, I am going to be a stick-in-the-mud
> and propose that we already have such a library. Clang:
> I strongly encourage you not to begin yet another
> open-source C++ parser.
Before I started this project two years ago, I obviously checked
whether there was any similar C++ source code analysis library
project. However, I didn't find anything.

In the meantime, I did discover the existence of Clang, but I already
spent a lot of time working on Scalpel. I must confess it was a pretty
bad news for me, but I've decided to carry on in spite of it.
After all, compared with the G++ front-end, Clang is yet another
open-source C++ parser as well. Similarly, LLVM is yet another
open-source compiler compared with GCC, ArchLinux is yet another
GNU/Linux distro compared with Debian, and so on.

All competition is stimulating. It's beneficial for everyone. All
competitors are different from each other and aim to bring a surplus
value. As I said, Scalpel brings high homogeneity with Boost. It has
its own unique design and I also plan to endow it with round-trip
engineering capabilities.

I've been working on Scalpel for two years and I strongly intend to
complete it. Even more so, I encourage developers to contribute to the
open-source software's diversity!

> [1] Scalpel appears to be under an LGPL license, which is not Boost-compatible.
In the beginning, Scalpel was under GPL. Hartmut Kaiser, Joel de
Guzman and some fellows of mine convinced me to switch under a more
liberal software license. Then, I've switched to LGPL.
If one day Scalpel is accepted into Boost, I'll release it under the
BSL without any hesitation.