[cfe-commits] r127141 - in /cfe/trunk: include/clang/Driver/ include/clang/Frontend/ lib/Frontend/ lib/FrontendTool/ test/Coverage/

[Douglas Gregor]

On Mar 9, 2011, at 3:28 AM, Anton Lokhmotov wrote:

> Hello Douglas,
> 
> I am taken aback by your decision to remove the AST XML printer.  It
> definitely works beyond toy examples, as we actually use it in production.
> 
> I appreciate your points on how the AST printer should be improved.  Would
> it be possible for you to propose a project up for grabs at
> http://clang.llvm.org/OpenProjects.html, so the AST printer could be
> improved by volunteers over time rather than completely removed from the
> sources?

We've waited for volunteers to improve the AST XML printer for many, many months (first commit of the XML printer: May 21, 2009). It didn't work. A few patches trickled in, but this feature remains incomplete, undocumented, and poorly tested. It's irresponsible to knowingly release a feature in such a state.

I'll go update OpenProjects.html, and we'll see if we can draw more volunteers into working on something that we would be proud to release as a feature.

	- Doug



> Regards,
> Anton.
> 
> 
>> Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2011 01:03:30 -0000
>> From: Douglas Gregor <dgregor at apple.com>
>> Subject: [cfe-commits] r127141 - in /cfe/trunk: include/clang/Driver/
>> 	include/clang/Frontend/ lib/Frontend/ lib/FrontendTool/
>> test/Coverage/
>> To: cfe-commits at cs.uiuc.edu
>> Message-ID: <20110307010330.78FEB2A6C12C at llvm.org>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>> 
>> Author: dgregor
>> Date: Sun Mar  6 19:03:30 2011
>> New Revision: 127141
>> 
>> URL: http://llvm.org/viewvc/llvm-project?rev=127141&view=rev
>> Log:
>> Remove the AST printer (-ast-print-xml), which is too incomplete and
>> too low-level to actually be useful but is just interesting enough for
>> people to try to use it (which won't actually work beyond toy
>> examples).
>> 
>> To bring back the AST printer, it needs to be:
>>  - Complete, covering all of C/C++/Objective-C
>>  - Documented, with appropriate Schema against which we can validate
>>  the output
>>  - Designed for C/C++/Objective-C, not Clang's specific ASTs
>>  - Stable across Clang versions
>>  - Well-tested
> 
> 
>