[antlr-interest] My antlr 2 bashing list

Ric Klaren klaren at cs.utwente.nl
Thu Mar 11 06:57:17 PST 2004


Hi,

On Wed, Mar 10, 2004 at 07:11:41PM -0000, J. Stephen Riley Silber wrote:
> (Er, gimme a sec whilst I put on my bullet-proof jacket here...)
>
> BETTER MSVC INTEGRATION SUPPORT.  *ducks the rocks*  I know we all
> hate M$, and I'm no exception.  But for the love of god, there's a
> LOT of development going on in MSVC these days, and ignoring the poor
> saps (like me) who have to use it is not so nice.  Basically, we need
> for ANTLR to be truly platform agnostic, not just *nix agnostic.

I only have limited access to MSVC6. So I can't really test stuff for MSVC.
Basically I'm very close to the point to drop all MSVC support except for
structural things in the codegen (the extra #define's in class headers
stuff like that)

When I started there was pretty much no MSVC out of the box support I then
naively said that I would like to support it. By now I'm more tending to
the opinion that I should not try to support a compiler that is 'weird' and
I cannot test myself. Trying to cobble together community patches and
fail/success reports is not very effective.

I think it would save myself and the community a lot of aggravation if
after an ANTLR release there's someone who cobbles up a MSVC-Version-X
rescue kit and puts it in the filesharing section.

To be clear about it I did not make the final decision to completely drop
MSVC yet. But if the 2.7.3 release will be another disaster MSVC wise I
might. So MSVC users grab those snapshots and prereleases and test them
till you drop and give (good & specific) feedback!

> To whit:
> * NMAKE-compatible makefiles for the C++ libs.  If we can cobble up
> NMAKE makefiles, then we're cool with Ric--we're purely command-
> line.  I got no problem with that, since if you can make an NMAKE
> file, you can make a GUI project for it.

If someone makes these for the latest snapshot/prerelease I'll drop them in
the contrib section. Please be clear about for which MSVC version they are
though. Also DSP/DSW files are welcome. I don't expect any changes in the
amount of header/source files unless I get time to port the
TokenStreamRewrite stuff.

To sum it up:
- Or things work out mostly via 2.7.3 release and MSVC getting saner with
  versions 7.0+7.1. And I'll meddle on with whatever comes my way in patches.
- Or MSVC support gets dropped
- Or it will be third party via antlr.org filesharing
- Or someone steps up to do *continued* MSVC support (who has the compilers
  etc)
- Or someone donates a license of MSVC for ANTLR support licensed to Ter
  maybe? (If I'd personally buy it, I'd buy the full version usable for
  commercial stuff, but to dish out that amount of cash for something I'd
  mainly use for ANTLR I'd have to fall on my head pretty hard)

I'm not against MSVC per se, but I don't want the hassle it gives at the
moment (not to mention the rude behaviour of some people in the MSVC camp).
I'd rather won't release something for a platform than release something
halfworking for a platform.

> * Has anyone mentioned smoke testing of builds yet?  If that's
> already happening, let's get MSVC as a test target for the C++ libs.

No compiler no test. Hmm no compiler no bugs.. no compiler no cry. Erm...
No test suite no test too.. but less usable for puns...

But seriously it would be very good to have a test suite. But heck I didn't
even have time to write one for the compiler/tool I work on. Also not
familiar with the term smoke testing (I assume that's just checking if it
builds? then again then we'd need a farm of machines/os/compilers to check
everything probably not feasible for an opensource project at least not
this one)

> * A warning-free build for the C++ libs, for all major targets.  A
> Windows build is still littered with warnings all over the place.

Expecting a warning free build across all platforms is maybe not realistic.

Cheers,

Ric
--
-----+++++*****************************************************+++++++++-------
    ---- Ric Klaren ----- j.klaren at utwente.nl ----- +31 53 4893722  ----
-----+++++*****************************************************+++++++++-------
 "Don't call me stupid." "Oh, right. To call you stupid would be an insult
    to stupid people. I've known sheep that could outwit you! I've worn
              dresses with higher IQs!" --- A Fish Called Wanda



 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/antlr-interest/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
     antlr-interest-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
 



More information about the antlr-interest mailing list