A gentle critque..

[Lars Ivar Igesund]

Ben Cooley wrote:

> In article <e49b0t$11f0$1 at digitaldaemon.com>, Walter Bright says...
>>
>>Derek Parnell wrote:
>>> May I repeat a portion of my post please ...
>>> 
>>>     "a new utility that can **help** us automate
>>>      translation of C/C++ headers into D source code"
>>> 
>>> I know that 100% automated translation is not practical. However, as
>>> DigitalMars already has a C/C++ parser that works, I was thinking that a
>>> tool based on that parser to created a best-effort translation and
>>> highlighted that which needs human effort might be a useful addition to
>>> the D tool set. Whatever you have now as a C/C++ parser has got to be
>>> better than writing a new one from scratch. I'm not asking for the
>>> source code for that parser, just a tool that would output something
>>> that could be tweaked into D code by either (or both) another tool or
>>> person.
>>
>>One of my concerns about me writing such a tool is that people will have
>>too high expectations of it, and when it fails to deliver 100% automated
>>conversion, it'll give the rest of D a bad image.
>>
>>The first thing someone new to D will do is try to run the converter
>>across all their C header files. The converter will fail miserably.
>>They'll just dismiss D as a buggy piece of ****.
> 
> Hi Walter,
> 
> Great work on D, by the way!  I guess this post is just frustration that I
> will never actually be able to use it except in some smaller projects.
> 
> About parsing headers.. I'm sure people would feel the same way about any
> C or C plus plus compiler. If it couldn't parse headers, it wouldn't be
> particularly
> useful.  It's a tough row to hoe.. but well there you are when you decide
> to
> write an alternative to C and C plus plus.  The ability to  integrate
> easily with all the existing code out there is crtitically important.

I guess that Walter would know if it was technically feasible, having
developed the current D reference compiler, and the first native commercial
C++ compiler. If he don't want to do it, I don't see how that would hinder
you from trying to get this working with the GDC and G++ sources, though.

-- 
Lars Ivar Igesund
blog at http://larsivi.net
DSource & #D: larsivi