[antlr-interest] Re: ANTLR 3.0 and code generation for C++

[Ric Klaren]

Hi,

On Tue, Oct 28, 2003 at 11:06:52AM +0100, Thomas Dudziak wrote:
> Would it be possible to make the actual char/string type configurable ?

It will be configurable to support unicode (char/wchar) so a lot of the
support library will move to templates. To what extend I do not know yet
untill I start playing with a new support lib and a modified codegenerator.
I'll probably create a branch next month when I get some more time.

> Similiarily, it might be feasible to use the boost library (shared_ptr
> etc.) or even a "real" garbage collection lib (like "More for C++",
> "JUiC++", or the "Boehm-Demers-Weiser Conservative Garbage Collector") ?

I plan to do a lot of things the C++ way so we'll probably see allocators
for common objects e.g. plugging in a garbage collector or the boehm
library or what else should be possible. I'll probably start with a simple
garbage collector for Tokens/AST nodes. No more reference counter anyway,
that's the main goal.

In short my wishlist (if I get to do all of this I'm happy, but no
guarantees):

- Get rid of the reference counters.
- More templates, to improve configurability
- I want to try how far one would get with a very generic Token interface
  and some TokenTraits object (compare with char_traits) Then maybe see if
  heterogenous tokens are possible.
- Use a configurable class for Token/AST positions (so the designer can choose
  between no token position information, line only, line+column,
  line+colum+file)
- The same for ASTs (traits+positions) and make heterogeneous AST's work.
- Try to get rid off the exceptions for backtracking and error handling (e.g.
  open the way for C codegeneration, and probably significantly boost
  performance, also a good chance to decrease code size)
- Move a lot of algorithms that are currently hooked to ASTFactory to
  separate functions/templates.

While I work on it there will probably be a number of development branch
releases that will not be able to generate java anymore. I don't know
enough of the java generics (?) stuff to know if the ideas can be ported to
java.

Ideas? Comments? Suggestions? Declarations of apparent insanity of yours
truly?

Cheers,

Ric
--
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    ---- Ric Klaren ----- j.klaren at utwente.nl ----- +31 53 4893722  ----
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   Words fly like arrows
      as if we knew what was right and wrong. --- Chuang Tsu

 

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