Re: What IDE features do we need?

[Mike Mattie]

On Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:26:29 +0300
Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> wrote:

> > From: Stefan Monnier <address@hidden>
> > Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:26:52 -0400
> > Cc: Tassilo Horn <address@hidden>, address@hidden
> > 
> > > Emacs already has infrastructure for most of those features (in
> > > etags and in Ebrowse), sometimes even more than one package that
> > > offers a different implementation of the same functionality, but
> > > we need better UI for them and better graphical methods of
> > > presenting the output.
> > 
> > Refactoring requires a lot more infrastructure than what etags and
> > ebrowse provide.
> 
> I'm not convinced, but I won't argue.
> 
> 

re-factoring requires structure e.g: graphs. a flat table is not even enough
to compute what's in scope at a given point. Without scoping information a 
symbol
cannot be accurately renamed with accuracy. 

A trivial example is static symbols in C code. They are invisible at the link 
layer 
but produce collisions in a etags file. The namespace directive in C++ can 
declare the 
same symbol with different name-spaces, and within the same file. Combined with
"use" the correct definition/declaration points cannot be determined from a 
point
without basic scoping. 

CEDET architecturally is spot on. The details are certainly worth examining
but there is a high degree of design convergence when working on this domain.
CEDET is definitely an example of the essential elements required for
static analysis.

I have developed a Emacs parser myself but I would recommend
CEDET as a design complete system without hesitation.

Cheers,
Mike Mattie

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