Question

I used to use OpenC++ (http://opencxx.sourceforge.net/opencxx/html/overview.html) to perform code generation like:

Source:

class MyKeyword A {
  public:
    void myMethod(inarg double x, inarg const std::vector<int>& y, outarg double& z);
};

Generated:

class A {
  public:
    void myMethod(const string& x, double& y);
    // generated method below:
    void _myMehtod(const string& serializedInput, string& serializedOutput) {
      double x;
      std::vector<int> y;
      // deserialized x and y from serializedInput
      double z;
      myMethod(x, y, z);
    }
};

This kind of code generation directly matches the use case in the tutorial of OpenC++ (http://www.csg.is.titech.ac.jp/~chiba/opencxx/tutorial.pdf) by writing a meta-level program for handling “MyKeyword”, “inarg” and “outarg” and performing the code generation. However, OpenC++ is sort of out-of-date and inactive now, and my code generator can only work on g++ 3.2 and it triggers error on parsing header files of g++ of higher version.

I have looked at VivaCore, but it does not provide the infra-structure for compiling meta-level program. I’m also looking at LLVM, but I cannot find documentation that tutor me on working out my source-to-source compilation usage. I’m also aware of the ROSE compiler framework, but I’m not sure whether it suits my usage, and whether its proprietary C++ front-end binary can be used in a commercial product, and whether a Windows version is available.

Any comments and pointers to specific tutorial/paper/documentation are much appreciated.

Answer 1

I do not know of any ready-to-use solution, but you could build your own with a relatively little effort. One possible option is Elsa C++ parser, a bit out of date, but easy to use and quite extendible. Another option is to tamper with XML ASTs produced by Clang++. I used both approaches in different scenarios.