RE: Ignoring blocks of code..?

Simon

Your syntax looks fine, thanks for considering this for 2.1.5.

Best regards
Mark=20

-----Original Message-----
From: Simon Harris [mailto:[email protected]]=20
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 11:58 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [simian-user] Ignoring blocks of code..?

Mark,

Consider it on the list for 2.1.5 along with the stylesheet stuff
mentioned earlier tonight.

FWIW, it's pretty easy to turn then code that ignores #region/#endregion
into a specific instance of this more general case anyway.

As for syntax, how about -ignoreBlock=3D"START":"END" to keep it inline
with the other options.

I realise that the command-line syntax is somewhat strange but that's
because I never actually thought anyone would use it hehehe.

Cheers,

Simon

On 15/04/2005, at 1:49 AM, Mark Webb wrote:

>
> Simon,
>
> I know all about those late nighters... :)
>
> I mostly agree about the idea of ignoring blocks, and it's potential=20
> for abuse.
>
> The hacky alternative I considered is for use to inject comment blocks

> every so often (under the threshold level) or reorder the code itself=20
> so that they no longer look alike to Simian. This is, IMO much worse=20
> and could affect the readability of the code, or worse introduce bugs=20
> immediately.
>
> As far as our development process goes, we actually have a bunch of=20
> perl scripts that execute after our nightly build that look for 'bad=20
> things'
> in the projects and the code
>  (for example we keep track of developers TODO comments etc, to make=20
> sure they don't get out of hand) If we added the ability to ignore=20
> blocks with the mechanism I described below, we would also add a=20
> script to check for these regions after every build so that we can=20
> police it's use.
>
> In otherwords, we trust our developers, especially because we are=20
> watching them very very closely :)
>
> I think the option would be a useful addition, and if you added it you

> might just want to document it as use at your own risk, e.g.  "Only=20
> use this option under extreme circumstance. Make sure there is no way=20
> to refactor the code prior to ignoring it."
>
> Thanks again
> Mark
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Simon Harris [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 11:37 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [simian-user] Ignoring blocks of code..?
>
> Mark,
>
> It's 1.30am here but I've been awake writing (or at least attempting=20
> to
> write) so your email was a nice distraction :)
>
> I have to admit that I'm not a great fan of ignoring blocks myself. I=20
> feel it is far too easy to abuse. I do however concede that it may=20
> sometimes be necessary to use.
>
> Along the same lines, when someone told me about the use of=20
> #region/#endregion in C# I was a little take aback as it seemed to be=20
> that the code was being polluted by constructs designed solely for the

> tool. But again, I concede that the reality is most people code within

> the tool anyway.
>
> Thanks for the kind words too by the way. Always nice to know people=20
> are finding Simian useful.
>
> Oh, the #region/#reqion stuff really does just ignore all regions.
> Someone asked for it a while ago, back before I even knew what they=20
> were for :)
>
> Anyway, I guess it comes down to how much you trust your developers=20
> not to subvert the process by simply marking up the code. As the=20
> customer, I'm more than happy to do what you think is going to help=20
> improve your code quality.
>
> Besides, I honestly haven't come up with a better alternative. hehe.
>
> Maybe it's an option we just have to have?
>
> Simon
>
> On 15/04/2005, at 1:22 AM, Mark Webb wrote:
>
>>
>> Simon
>>
>> Thanks for the prompt reply.
>>
>> I noticed the #region support, but given that our code is mainly=20
>> (about
>> 95+%) C++, the remainder being C# or some other language this doesn't
>> work for us yet.
>> On the subject of regions, does this switch ignore ALL regioned code?
>> Is
>> it possible to ignore regions with specific names?
>> The reason I ask, is that we region all of our C# code into logical=20
>> blocks to ease code reading.
>>
>> The ideal would be to find a language agnostic solution.
>> Maybe an option like...
>>  -ignoreblock "// START ignore dupes" "// END ignore dupes"
>> Or for VB this might read
>>  -ignoreblock "' START ignore dupes" "' END ignore dupes"
>>
>> So that we can mark the code in anyway we see fit, and Simian can be=20
>> passed the appropriate markers.
>>
>> I am not so keen on the solution of a file containing file and line=20
>> numbers. As you say this is volatile and would need to maintained as=20
>> the code base changes.
>>
>> BTW, I have to say Simian is an excellent tool and has already helped

>> us significantly reduce code duplication. Once we can get a clean run

>> (i.e.
>> we have filtered out 'good' duplicates, and fixed 'bad' duplicates)=20
>> we
>
>> hope to use it as a policing tool to automatically catch the=20
>> Copy-Paste offenders :)
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Mark
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Simon Harris [mailto:[email protected]]
>> Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 11:12 AM
>> To: [email protected]
>> Subject: Re: [simian-user] Ignoring blocks of code..?
>>
>> Hi Mark,
>>
>> This is an interesting and ongoing debate in the simian user=20
>> community; ie what to do about duplicates that you wish to ignore.
>>
>> There are a few options. One would be to mark-up the source code. If=20
>> you are using C#, this is already possible as #region #endregion=20
>> markers are already supported.
>>
>> If this doesn't work for you, or you are using some other language,=20
>> another option would be to come up with some other kind of tag to=20
>> indicate that simian should ignore it.
>>
>> Yet another possible solution would be have a file containing code=20
>> fragments that are consider "legal" duplicates.
>>
>> And one final, yet somewhat volatile, approach would be to have a=20
>> file
>
>> containing files and line number ranges of code blocks to ignore.
>>
>> One thing that has come up occasionally is that duplicate blocks that

>> one considers to be "legal" may well be candidates for code=20
>> generation
>> - thought his doesn't sound like it's the case in your situation. Or=20
>> even template methods - though I have a general disdain for these.
>>
>> Any and all of these are possible, it's really a matter of what you=20
>> think would work for you.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Simon
>>
>> On 15/04/2005, at 12:19 AM, Mark Webb wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Is there any way to ignore blocks of code from parsing?
>>>
>>> We have a number of code snippets that are flagged as duplicates,=20
>>> but
>
>>> really are not (about a half dozen over 4million lines of code).
>>>
>>> It would be useful if there were either a directive I can put in the

>>> code, or a flag I can pass to Simian that can ignore all code=20
>>> segments
>>
>>> that I have validated manually.
>>>
>>> If not, might this be something that can be added in a future
> version?
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>  Mark
>>>
>>
>> --
>> Simon Harris
>> RedHill Consulting, Pty. Ltd.
>> 12/55-67 Batman Street
>> West Melbourne VIC 3003
>> http://www.redhillconsulting.com.au
>> mob: +61 417 505 611
>> yahoo/skype: haruki_zaemon
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> --
> Simon Harris
> RedHill Consulting, Pty. Ltd.
> 12/55-67 Batman Street
> West Melbourne VIC 3003
> http://www.redhillconsulting.com.au
> mob: +61 417 505 611
> yahoo/skype: haruki_zaemon
>
>
>
>

--
Simon Harris
RedHill Consulting, Pty. Ltd.
12/55-67 Batman Street
West Melbourne VIC 3003
http://www.redhillconsulting.com.au
mob: +61 417 505 611
yahoo/skype: haruki_zaemon