[Boost-docs] [quickbook] Macros and naming

Subject: [Boost-docs] [quickbook] Macros and naming
From: Joel de Guzman (joel_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-07-29 00:09:28

Hi again,

Ok... macro names are too loose. Macro names can accept anything except
space and ']'. That way, I thought originally, you can make a macro
named :-) and generate a smiley image. It's even demo'd in the original
QuickDoc docs and carried on to the latest QuickBook!

However that may sound cute, they present some problems. For one, it's
hard to detect them. John requested a warning if an attempt to expand
a macro that has not been defined. That is not possible due to the
lax syntax for macro names.

Template names, OTOH, are very strict. They currently allow only C/C++
like names. You know, alpha+underscore>>alnum+underscore.

Some questions:

1) Should we do it (make naming stricter) and break compatibility
    from 1.4 (keeping full compatibility for 1.3 and below)?
2) What syntax should we allow for macro names?
3) Should we choose names that are detectable, recognizable, grep-able?
4) Should we make template names more relaxed? Rene, I'm sure you have
    an opinion here.
5) What syntax should we allow for template names? (Templates are
    recognizable, by design, due to the use of [name] syntax).

Regards,
-- 
Joel de Guzman
http://www.boost-consulting.com
http://spirit.sf.net