D front end implementation

[Timon Gehr via Digitalmars-d]

On 18.11.2016 11:18, Rainer Schuetze wrote:
>> ...
>
> Quite a list, but the issues that are likely to affect symbol lookup
> might not be too complicated to implement.

I think 'protected' is the only remaining feature whose implementation 
is not "obvious". Otherwise, finishing support for all features is 
mostly a question of spending the time. Some performance tuning will be 
necessary too.

> I'm looking for candidates
> that might replace the semantic engine in Visual D,

In theory, the frontend would be a good option because due to its 
design, it is quite easy to extend for incremental semantic analysis 
support. (It keeps track of all dependencies between nodes, all that is 
needed is to record those and to re-analyze dependent code as required.)

> as D_Parser is
> unlikely to be developed further at the moment.
>
>>> Is it able to digest itself?
>>
>> Not yet. (Mostly because of missing language features.)
>>
>>> That would be pretty impressive ;-)
>>
>> I want to get there eventually. :)
>> Unfortunately I haven't had a lot of time to spend on this lately. Also,
>> DMD 2.060 has quite many annoying bugs that slow down development.
>>
>
> I hope to get the forward reference bugs solved in current dmd.

Nice initiative!

> That might also help your motivation to continue the front end ;-)

Certainly. :)