Re: [Boost-users] c++ parser with boost::spirit?

From: Andy Little (andy_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-03-11 03:17:29

"Andy Little" <andy_at_[hidden]> wrote in message
news:dukkf0$4ed$1_at_sea.gmane.org...
>
> "Noel Yap"  wrote
>> On 3/7/06, Andy Littlewrote:
>>> I guess so, except high altitude mountain climbing over the AST using
>>> copious
>>> supplies of oxygen might be nearer the mark than walking. As I understand it
>>> C++
>>> is not beloved by compiler writers for this reason! I guess it all comes
>>> down
>>> to
>>> the exact definition of "a C++ parser"and what you want to do with its
>>> output.
>>
>> Some things I had in mind were:
>> - code beautification
>> - static dependency analysis for link- or compile-compatibility
>> - other static code analysis
>> - creation of refactoring tools

I forgot to say that though this would be a very difficult project, I think it
would also be a very worthwhile project.  My analysis of the difficulties is
because I started naively to try to write a C++ parser some years ago. The main
issue I found is that I just didnt know the language well enough to proceed so I
was constantly consulting the standard to learn huge chunks of the language
itself, which meant progress was slow though it did help me understand C++ a bit
more! I was also using VC6 which didnt help! I think its when  I came to parsing
templates that I really hit difficulties as I had very little experience with
templates at the time. I know a bit more about templates now so I might do
better but then there are all the details of overloaded functions , finding best
match, partial specialisation etc etc. This is the big problem with a C++
parser. its just incredibly complicated.

Nevertheless judging by the interest in Wave preprocessor I have no doubt there
would be a huge interest in such a beast by boost and C++ developers in general
for all the tasks you mention and more.

regards
Andy Little