Re: Why code completion and early error checking are needed

From: Steven T. Hatton (susudata_at_setidava.kushan.aa)
Date: 06/06/04 

Date: Sun, 06 Jun 2004 08:10:09 -0400

Phlip wrote:

> Petec wrote:
>
>> Please, stop trying to turn C++ into Java.
>
> Man, that's such a great way to say it.

Then you'll be happy to know this:

Concurrency: I'd like to see a library supporting threads and a related
library supporting concurrency without shared memory. [Like Java has]

Reflection: I'd like to see something like that supported through a library
defining the interface to extended type information.[Like Java has]

Persistence: I'd like to see some support in the Standard Library, probably
in connection with the extended type information, but I don't currently
have any concrete suggestions.[Like Java has]

Regular expression matching: I'd like to see a pattern-matching library in
the standard. [Like Java has]

Garbage collection: I'd like to see the C++ standard explicitly acknowledge
that it is an acceptable implementation technique for C++, specifying that
"concealed pointers" can be ignored and what happens to destructors for
collected garbage. [Like Java has]

GUI: It would be nice to have a standard GUI framework, but I don't see how
that could be politically feasible. ["Politically feasible"? Who would try
to stop that?]

Platform-independent system facilities: I'd like to see the Standard Library
provide a broader range of standard interfaces to common system resources
(where available), such as directories and sockets. [Like Java has]

>
> To do such an IDE, you'd need to re-write a compiler front-end from
> scratch. Its object model and algorithms would support event-driven
> queries from the IDE about program structure.

You'd need a lexer:
http://developer.kde.org/documentation/library/cvs-api/kdevelop/html/classLexer.html

You'd need a parser:
http://developer.kde.org/documentation/library/cvs-api/kdevelop/html/classParser.html

Something to manage the parser scheduling:
http://developer.kde.org/documentation/library/cvs-api/kdevelop/html/cpp_2backgroundparser_8cpp.html

You'd need an abstract syntax table:
http://developer.kde.org/documentation/library/cvs-api/kdevelop/html/classAST.html

You'd need something to actually do the code completion:
http://developer.kde.org/documentation/library/cvs-api/kdevelop/html/classCppCodeCompletion.html

You'd need a class to do the colorization for syntax highlighting.
http://developer.kde.org/documentation/library/cvs-api/kdevelop/html/classCppColorizer.html

> Legacy compilers are tuned for batch-mode, not on-demand mode.
>
> Nobody's going to develop two compilers, one for the editor and
> another for the production build. And nobody is going to throw away a
> legacy compiler just to ship one that bonds with an IDE. Such a
> project would destroy an entire customer base, when the compiler
> delivered different bugs than the ones all our code has grown use to.

You are speaking from a very limited perspective, and are quite wrong about
what people are likely to create.

> And these points are all peripheral. Coding is not about entering
> statements hand-over-fist, or automating that. Coding is about
> designing a minimal set of methods to support a maximal set of
> requirements. That requires emmendment and thought, not ammendment and
> rote.

You really have no idea of the kinds of things I've been working with.

> Java and its editors, by demonstrating advanced automated support for
> writing code statements, are revealing how broken a language can be
> (not that C++ any better here). If a lowly editor can predict our next
> statement, then why should the vaunted compiler force us write it? 

-- 
STH 
Hatton's Law: "There is only One inviolable Law"
KDevelop: http://www.kdevelop.org  SuSE: http://www.suse.com
Mozilla: http://www.mozilla.org

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