Re: new experimental C++ parser (branch)

Stefan Seefeld <[email protected]> writes:

> hi there,
>
> after getting biten a number of times by the C++ parser not
> being able to parse template-heavy code I'm working on, I
> realized that there was only so much that could be done
> to fix the existing C++ parser.
>
> After having dragged the idea around for a couple of weeks
> I now created a new branch and committed some initial code
> in an attempt to rewrite the C++ parser from scratch to make
> it 'more' standard conformant.
>
> The branch can be seen here:
>
> http://synopsis.fresco.org/viewsvn/synopsis-Synopsis/branches/CxxParserRewrite/

Not being an expert with viewsvn (it looks like you can't diff a
branch with the trunk?) I am having a hard time seeng exactly what
you've been changing.  

From
http://synopsis.fresco.org/viewsvn/synopsis-Synopsis/branches/CxxParserRewrite/src/Synopsis/Parser.cc?rev=1593&r1=1593&view=log
it looks like you might be hand-coding an LR(2) recursive-descent
parser.  I wonder if you considered generating your parser with
something like bison?  It seems like there's a great deal of code
involved in lookahead, etc., that could be handled by a parser
generator, leaving you to tackle the really hard problems (name
lookup, overload resolution, etc.)

> The changes incure a number of modifications to the parse
> tree structure, so at the moment there is probably not much that
> will work in the new branch, beside the some simple developer tools
> such as the display-ptree, display-symbols, and display-types applets.
>
> Obviously, any help to move this project forward would be more than
> welcome.

I might be interested, but I'd need to know more about your approach
and its rationale first.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com