• Chris Katko (25/25) May 21 2016 I have an idea for something. I know I can't be the only one to
• thedeemon (8/11) May 22 2016 I think one popular approach to the task is to use linters /

Chris Katko <ckatko gmail.com> writes:

I have an idea for something. I know I can't be the only one to 
think this way but I can't find very much information on it.

Basically, I want compile-time enforcement of semantic rules.

For one example--I asked previously here--if it was possible to 
generate a compile-time warning or error if someone used a 
function without checking the return value. But that is one 
specific implementation of a more abstract idea: Setting up 
rulesets to prevent common developer errors in my codebase that 
trigger at compile-time.

I'm wondering how to go about a more general-purpose setup.

Now, if I was using C/C++, I could generate the AST (Abstract 
Syntax Tree) with Clang. (And if you've never done it, I strongly 
recommend it, it's quite beautiful.) Clang also has libclang for 
modifying and generating AST on-the-fly which opens up huge 
potential--but back to the point: if I can find how to get LDC2 
to generate AST, I could write a parser and scan the AST for 
patterns.

I've seen DIP50 and AST Macros which are very interesting... but 
as far as I know, it's not implemented in any compiler.

So the question is: Is there a way to get LDC2 to generate AST or 
similar, and if not, any other way to go about this?

And lastly, is there a proper term for this process, and/or a 
field of research? I have found GCC MELT. But documentation is 
sparse and it seems restricted to GCC and C/C++. I guess you 
could call this "static analysis" with custom rules?

thedeemon <dlang thedeemon.com> writes:

On Sunday, 22 May 2016 at 04:33:44 UTC, Chris Katko wrote:
 Basically, I want compile-time enforcement of semantic rules.

 So the question is: Is there a way to get LDC2 to generate AST 
 or similar, and if not, any other way to go about this?

I think one popular approach to the task is to use linters / 
static analysis tools before compiling, as a build step or 
separately. There is this project:
https://github.com/Hackerpilot/Dscanner
that uses a D parser to get AST and applies different semantic 
checks, you could use that as a base and just add your own checks 
and conditions.