Fwd: Re: [SrcML] a little bug

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

----- Forwarded message from Icaro <ic...@gm...> -----

Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2005 14:40:41 +0200
From: Icaro <ic...@gm...>
Subject: Re: [SrcML] a little bug

This is just my case. I am writing, for my degree thesis, a fine grained 
Configuration Management System that can operate on methods level and 
not on file. 

IMHO what distinguishes SrcML from other projects like Jezix or JavaML 
is proper the fact that it doesn't focus on a specific programming 
language (at least in the intentions). For which would surely be 
preferable in my case (the CMS) an abstract approach to the different 
types of sources. 

[...]

Python was only a proposal suited for my needs. Perhaps it would be 
simpler to write a parser for a more Java-like language.  
Is there a guide, a tutorial or something else, that describe how to add 
a parser to SrcML?

http://icaro.blogspot.com
----- End forwarded message -----

This is indeed one of the (supposed) strengths of SrcML. One of the
ideas we had for interesting applications was a patch to CVS/subversion
to allow for actually diff not line-based, but semantic based by storing
SrcML only. It would also allow you whole new queries like 'when was
this method changed the last time'.. well there are uncountable
possibilities.

As for python we have not decided that this has to be the next language.
Only that said student wanted to do a parser for it. Basically we'd like
to restrict it to OO languages right now, because if you include _all_
languages there is no more common denominator at all. With OO languages
you have at least several things like classes, methods, variables.. in
common (with slight - queryable - differences such as multiple
inheritence, support for interfaces etc).

There is no explicit description for how to add a parser to SrcML, as
each parser is contained in its own plugin. This gives the developer of
the parser a huge amount of freedom. So all that's required is one class
which is a subclass of de.srcml.parser.ParserPlugin. Input can be
generally retrieved through de.srcml.util.Input and output (a string
containing the parsed SrcML document) should go to de.srcml.util.Output.

That's all there is to it except if you want to get a little fancier and
support incremental parsing for smaller constructs. There are a few
methods for that defined in the ParserPlugin class which you can
overwrite to support that (but it's not required, as the default
implementation will throw an UnsupportedOperationException).

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

Truth is a good dog; but always beware of barking too close to the heels
of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out. (Samuel T Coleridge)