[Introspector-developers] James Michael DuPont's proposal ... and CPPX

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Hi all --- sorry for this mail to a whole list.

Please note that work in an international community, including CSER  
www.cser.ca/  is working on similar problems
to those noted by James Michael DuPont.  Notably:

GXL, a standardized format for such extractions:   http://www.gupro.de/GXL/
CPPX: a GCC based front end that extracts facts from C++ programs:   
http://www.swag.uwaterloo.ca/~cppx/

The goal is to make standard and open tools for the software community. 
 Any advice on how
best to do this welcome.  

We are now pondering the best way to
license CPPX.  Its front end is a minimally modified GCC.  Its back end 
reads data extracted by it front end.

Thanks,
        Ric Holt, Prof, Univ of Waterloo
(PS: Andrew Malton & Tom Dean are the brains behind CPPX).

James Michael DuPont wrote:

>Dear All,
>
>I am writing to you all in a call for discussion about the future of 
>free software in the new millenium. 
>We are approaching the limits of the current understanding of linking
>and derived works in an networked and self descriptive systems.
>Where does ones creative work start and end is much more easier
>defined.
>I hope that you appreciate my humble proposal.
>Please feel free to respond to the mailing list
>int...@li.... 
>
>James Michael DuPont.
>
>-----------------------------------
>Here is my proposal : 
>-----------------------------------
>I propose the following API into free software development tools
>to be licensed for the orderly, secure, fast, and high tech buzzword
>compliant data backbone for a new gnu development environment.
>
>ABSTRACT
>
>The Introspector is a tool chain to extract meta-data about your
>programs from the compiler and present it to you for making your job as
>a programmer easier.
>
>The software is free software in the spirit of the GNU manifesto and is
>revolutionary in the freedoms that it intends on granting to its users.
>There are many many licensing and legal issues addressed by this
>project, and my guideline for resolving them are to limit the usage of
>the tool for non-free software if there is a need to.  The legal and
>licensing FAQ will be posted in the next weeks.
>
>This Meta-Data includes all data collected about your software by the
>Compiler, the Make system, the Project and Packaging system,
>the CVS Logs and the Mailling List.
>
>The Introspector's scope was originally just the GCC C compiler, but
>will be expanded to include the extraction of  meta-data from different
>compilers and interpreters.
>
>The programs meta-data will be provided as a Perl/C#/(XML/RDF/DAML)/SQL
>or plain old C/C++ interface.
>
>We will build tools to allow this meta-data to be processed by various
>GUI tools, Graph Layout Tools like VCG, Diagram Editors like DIA, and
>Editors like EMACS.
>
>Also Languge bindings like 
>compiling (gcc(C, C++, java) | cscc(CSHARP))
>scripting (guile|Python|Perl { via inline::* }|Ruby)
>reasoning (guile|scheme|lisp|prolog)
>repository (GDBM|(POSTGRES|MYSQL)XIndice)
>communication (soap|xmlrpc| +  a new development of a REST api)
>
>This meta-data will be stored in a repository and available to tools
>that need it via many different interfaces.
>
>I look forward to your comments.
>
>Please come visit my updated webpage at :
>http://introspector.sourceforge.net/
>
>You will find an copy of related snippets and news at :
> the blogger : http://gccintrospector.blogspot.com
>
>Best regards,
>Mike
>
>
>
>=====
>James Michael DuPont
>http://introspector.sourceforge.net/
>
>__________________________________________________
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup
>http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Subject:
>
> Proposal for an Worldwide Data Introspector API layer for GNU tools.
> From:
>
> James Michael DuPont <mdu...@ya...>
> Date:
>
> Sat, 29 Jun 2002 10:50:29 -0700 (PDT)
> To:
>
> gnu...@gn...
>
>
>-----------------------------------
>Here is my proposal : 
>-----------------------------------
>I propose the following API into free software development tools
>to be licensed for the orderly, secure, fast, and high tech buzzword
>compliant data backbone for a new gnu development environment.
>
>ABSTRACT
>
>The Introspector is a tool chain to extract meta-data about your
>programs from the compiler and present it to you for making your job as
>a programmer easier.
>
>The software is free software in the spirit of the GNU manifesto and is
>revolutionary in the freedoms that it intends on granting to its users.
>There are many many licensing and legal issues addressed by this
>project, and my guideline for resolving them are to limit the usage of
>the tool for non-free software if there is a need to.  The legal and
>licensing FAQ will be posted in the next weeks.
>
>This Meta-Data includes all data collected about your software by the
>Compiler, the Make system, the Project and Packaging system,
>the CVS Logs and the Mailling List.
>
>The Introspector's scope was originally just the GCC C compiler, but
>will be expanded to include the extraction of  meta-data from different
>compilers and interpreters.
>
>The programs meta-data will be provided as a Perl/C#/(XML/RDF/DAML)/SQL
>or plain old C/C++ interface.
>
>We will build tools to allow this meta-data to be processed by various
>GUI tools, Graph Layout Tools like VCG, Diagram Editors like DIA, and
>Editors like EMACS.
>
>Also Languge bindings like 
>compiling (gcc(C, C++, java) | cscc(CSHARP))
>scripting (guile|Python|Perl { via inline::* }|Ruby)
>reasoning (guile|scheme|lisp|prolog)
>repository (GDBM|(POSTGRES|MYSQL)XIndice)
>communication (soap|xmlrpc| +  a new development of a REST api)
>
>This meta-data will be stored in a repository and available to tools
>that need it via many different interfaces.
>
>I look forward to your comments.
>
>Please come visit my updated webpage at :
> http://introspector.sf.net
>
>You will find an copy of related snippets and news at :
> the blogger : http://gccintrospector.blogspot.com
>
>Best regards,
>Mike
>
>
>=====
>James Michael DuPont
>http://introspector.sourceforge.net/
>
>__________________________________________________
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup
>http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
>
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