Re: [SrcML] a little bug

[Frank R. <fra...@un...>]

On Sat, Sep 10, 2005 at 05:41:01PM +0200, Icaro wrote:
> Frank Raiser ha scritto:
> >As it looks like right now we still have at least 3 active developers.
> >Though they are not as active as they would be in a perfect world I
> >think it should be enough to get some more interesting things done :)
> > 
> >
> 
> And I hope this. I see a lot of potentialities in SrcML if it will be 
> amplified. 

So do we all, but all that potential doesn't come from nothing. Right
now most people have problems to see this potential and therefore the
nubmer of developers is very low right now. I can't even blame anyone
for that, as you have to realize that we are basically working on a
meta-meta-language level here. SrcML is very powerful for developing
applications which in turn work with sourcecode again. But this means
that your average developer who just wants to use the final application
for his work will not be interested too much. In fact she should not
even need to know SrcML is involved at all for most tools.

> Particularly it would be beautiful to be able to have a support for 
> another language (python?)

We did have a python parser started during last semester's practical
course, however the student responsible for it left the project (due to
not needing the course anymore for his studying).
I personally don't have enough time right now to develop a second
parser, as most of my work will go into the UML support for SrcML as
part of my diploma thesis. And unfortunately I don't believe any of
the other developers is interested in writing a parser.

> >PS: Starting with srcml-0.2.1 all platforms are accessible through Java
> >directly and the bin module is therefore considered deprecated. See the
> >Introduction page on the Wiki on srcml.de for a few examples. Quick
> >start: "java de.srcml.parser.Parser" should work similar to calling
> >"jython parse.py" (takes similar parameters, etc)
> >
> I believe it's correct to directly have the same functionalities 
> accessible from SrCML, but I dislike to learn however that the jython 
> scripts  won't be adjourned anymore. 
> I find it a simple and immediate way to learn the API.

The jython scripts are basically just very simple wrappers which parse
the commandline arguments and just call the corresponding platform
accordingly. There is next to no logic contained in these scripts.
However that we consider this bin module deprecated does not mean that
it's useless or that you can't use jython with SrcML anymore. The
scripts will still be in CVS, we will just not advertize them any
further. If you still want to use those scripts the only problem might
occur with changes in the platforms (like the new ViewPlatform[1] will
break view.py). But you could easily adjust those scripts with minimal
knowledge of jython and the platform. Simply calling the platform once
with --help gives you the options it takes and the jython script just
needs to take the same options again.
If you experience any of these troubles feel free to send me a patch,
however I won't invest too much time myself into keeping those scripts
up to date (as mentioned earlier there is still a lot to do and time is
always short).


[1] Watch out for the new ViewPlatform to be announced on this list
later today ;)

-- 
Raiser, Frank
Student @ University of Ulm (www.uni-ulm.de)

Manuals just slow you down and make you feel stupid. The directions are too
slow, too detailed, and use too much abstract, arcane or academic language --
like boot up instead of turn on the red switch in the back. (Neil Fiore)