Re: [boost] [preprocessor metaprogramming] tools

Subject: Re: [boost] [preprocessor metaprogramming] tools
From: Edward Diener (eldiener_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-07-29 21:39:14

On 07/29/2012 09:38 AM, Hartmut Kaiser wrote:
>
>>>>> I wanted to share with you something I've found very useful for
>>>>> tracing/debugging macro metaprograms: the Eclipse CDT IDE has a
>>>>> "macro stepper" that allows you to step through the expansion of a
>>>>> macro step-by-step from the initial invocation to the final
>>>>> expansion. (This feature can be accessed by using the "Explore Macro
>>>>> Expansion" context menu item on a macro invocation.)
>>>>
>>>> This seems very nice, and probably can help especially when debugging
>>>> deferred expressions. However, will it show when a macro is painted
>>>> blue? That is really important to knowing why it didn't expand.
>>>
>>> Unfortunately it does not show that. That would be a nice addition.
>>
>> Wouldn't it be possible to build something really useful on top of the
>> Wave library?
>
> The Wave tool ($BOOST_ROOT/tools/wave) allows generating traces for the
> expansion of macros. See the docs for it's done
> (http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_50_0/libs/wave/doc/tracing_facility.html).
> Macro tracing in Wave does not show when a macro has been painted blue,
> however it allows following in detail what happens during the expansion of a
> particular macro. The information about a macro being painted is available
> and could be added to the tracing facility easily.

I have always found the Wave trace facility to be amazingly helpful in 
discovering how a macro should be expanded correctly. Just want to say 
thanks for this ability. Any further information that can be shown when 
expanding a macro, perhaps as a Wave trace option, is always welcome and 
appreciated by this programmer. Maybe something like a --verbose option.