Re: Proposal: ObjectiveC parser framework

[Stefan Urbanek]

On 2003-07-23 20:25:51 +0200 Alexander Malmberg <alexander@malmberg.org> wrote:

> Stefan Urbanek wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > First, excuse me for a little flood today.
> >
> > What do you think about extracting objective-c parsing code from
> > autogsdoc into a separate framework?
>
> afaict, autogsdoc is highly specific to extracting only the information
> that it needs. I doubt that it'd be worthwhile to try to extend it much.
<snip>

> Note that there are many ways of parsing code. Mostly, it hinges on
> whether you want to parse things properly, or if you'd rather deal with
> code in the form that the developer sees it. A proper parser is "better"
> in the sense that it will properly parse all code, but it comes at the
> price of the code not necessarily looking much like the code the
> developer sees, and generating code from the parsed form is very hard or
> impossible.

true.

> A crude way of classifying them would be to look at whether they run cpp
> on the source or not.

no problem. there should be more parsers fror the framework. each parser 
parsing information you need.

parser = [DKSourceParser properObjectiveCParser];
or
parser = [DKSourceParser documentationObjectiveCParser];

each should generate class/object trees with different level of information 
completeness. This will enable others to create various parsers that can parse, 
for example, additional 'attributes' of some variables, say:

@interface MyClass
{
   NSString *myString; /* ATTRIBUTES: retained */
}
@end

Even i am not going to use such oddities, there shold be someone who would like 
to have such thing.

I had autogsdoc in mind, because it is kind of parser, that canm give you some 
basic information about source files (name of class, ivars, methods and even 
the documentation). That is quite sufficient to generate basic class 
definitions.

The parser does not to have to be perfect. it just have to fit your needs for 
particuliar task.

(rest snipped).

Stefan

p.s.: any voulenteers with free time to create a prototype? can be a nice objc 
programming practice.