[Tracestring-devel] Announcement blurb for comp.lang.c++.moderated

[Robert M. <mc...@cf...>]

Below is a draft of the announcement that I'm planning to
comp.lang.c++.moderated

Comments?

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 http:://tracestring.sourceforge.net

traceString is a tool to read in C/C++ source and write new code with
the name of routine placed at the start of the routine.  This provides
a portable way to answer the question: WHO AM I?

The functionality of traceString can best be seen using a small
example in C++.  Given the following raw code: 

   int Foo::bar(int a)
   {
      // rest of routine
   }

It can be transformed by traceString to be:

   int Foo::bar(int a)
   { /* %TRACE% */ FUNC_TRACE("Foo::Bar(int a)"); /* %TRACE% */
     // rest of routine
   }

where the ``FUNC_TRACE("Foo::Bar(int a)");'' is under user control via
a pattern file.  

Features:

   - A pattern file controls what traceString generates.
   - "Fully Qualified" name, name, and class name are available.
   - Knows about namespaces.
   - Fast: It is written in C++ and flex.  On a Pentium 4
     it converted  23000 lines of code in 61 files in 0.1 seconds.
   - More portable than compiler solutions.

Other choices: 
   - C99 standard calls for __func to produce the name.  This is not
     available every where.
   - Gnu and Intel compiler have __FUNCTION__ and __PRETTY_FUNCTION__
     but not available on all compilers
   - RTTI typeid().name() provides the name but it is not human
     readable under Gnu and Intel compilers.

TraceString can work with a particular compiler solution via  the
pattern file.