[Cpptool-develop] Declaration parsing started...

[Andre B. <and...@gm...>]

hello together,

I'm currently working on the "declaration" parsing.

That's stuff like:

typedef class x { ... } x_type;
const int * (*f)(...);

I've analyzed the C++ Spec. and identified the following elements.
However I'm not yet sure if the parsing has to go that deep at the moment.
Maybe at implementation phase I decide to reduce the level for the first.

Here comes a proposal for a possible AST structure:
===============================================================
* Declaration-Level-Elements

// each declaration consists of a list of specifier and a list of 
declarators (with optional init part)
[simple-declaration]
  declaration-specifier-property => [declaration-specifier-list]    // 
specifiers for all declarators...
n [init-declarator]        // each declaration can declare 'n' identifier

[declaration-specifier-list]    // type declaration is organized as list
n [declaration-specifier]

[init-declarator]                   // each declarator consist of a 
declarator identifier, initialize-part and the declarator-description 
(pointer, const, ref etc.)
  ?identifier-property => [#declarator-identifier]
  ?initializer => [expression]
  declarator-property => [unparsed-declarator] , [declarator]

[unparsed-declarator]
#mutate: declarator

[declarator]                    // declarators are organized 
hierarchical, the property 'sub-declarator-property' links to the sub 
element.
  ?sub-declarator-property => [declarator]
?[function-declarator]            // int ... (...)
?[array-declarator]            // int ... [...]
?[#braces]                // int (...)
?[ptr-declarator]            // int (* ...)
?[#ref-declarator]            // int (& ...)
?[named-ptr-declarator]            // int (::c::d * ...)

[declaration-specifier]
?[#type-specifier]   // "simple-type-specifier" (char, wchar_t, bool, 
etc.) also "cv-qualifier" ---> see C++ Spec.
?[class-specifier]          // full class spec: "class x { ... }"
?[enum-specifier]          // full enum spec
?[elaborated-type-specifier]  // something like "class xxx" or "struct y"
===============================================================

I will put this on a wiki page for discussion
and add examples which use this ast.

Just feel free to send your opinion !

greetings,
André