Hi all,
I've been taking a look at the CND donation and I'd like to share with
you some findings, to verify if I'm correct and to discuss what should
be done (I'm afraid this is goning to be a long email).
Before going any further, you may want to read Jan's instructions for
CND first, available in the README.cnd file in the CND branch:
[1]
https://github.com/apache/netbeans/blob/cnd/README.cnd
1) MISSING SOURCES
I think we can recreate many of the files missing in the donation listed
in Jan's README.cnd [1] but for these three ones:
- cnd/cnd.modelimpl ... CPPParserEx.java
- cnd/cnd.modelimpl ... CPPSymbol.java
- cnd/cnd.modelimpl ... cpparser.g
These three files were probably not donated because their origin could
not be exactly tracked.
Some research indicates that these files were incorporated to NetBeans a
long time ago, and were originally covered with a very liberal license.
Further modifications by Sun/Oracle were covered with CDDL/GPL2+CPE,
that we can't use in Apache NetBeans.
The latest I can track them in NetBeans history are (probably) these
versoions (these don't have latest Sun+Oracle modifications, of course,
and may be poor alternatives to NetBeans 8.2 parsers/lexers):
[1.1]
https://github.com/emilianbold/netbeans-releases/blob/ddf7b064d46d371e2d1c69f30176b7ddb11178c1/cnd.modelimpl/src/org/netbeans/modules/cnd/modelimpl/parser/CPPSymbol.java
[1.2]
https://github.com/emilianbold/netbeans-releases/blob/ddf7b064d46d371e2d1c69f30176b7ddb11178c1/cnd.modelimpl/src/org/netbeans/modules/cnd/modelimpl/parser/CPPParserEx.java
[1.3]
https://github.com/emilianbold/netbeans-releases/blob/ddf7b064d46d371e2d1c69f30176b7ddb11178c1/cnd.modelimpl/src/org/netbeans/modules/cnd/modelimpl/parser/cppparser.g
And here comes the first question:
Q1. May we incorporate these three files ([1.1], [1.2], [1.3]) that were
covered by public domain licenses into Apache NetBeans?
2) MISSING BINARIES
Jan's README.cnd [1] also lists three missing binaries required to build
and/or to run CND.
The first two binaries:
* [A] 47F0DB803884692F28A26A2FF80A7D6756B091DB-cnd-build-trace-1.0.zip
* [B] E59851B0E49C05D728D5C653E52750FA5B6A8F0E-cnd-rfs-1.0.zip
Have C/C++ sources that have been donated:
* [A] https://github.com/apache/netbeans/tree/cnd/cnd/cnd.discovery/tools
* [B] https://github.com/apache/netbeans/tree/cnd/cnd/cnd.remote/tools
And that can then be built for Windows and Linux with ASF Infrastructure
(MacOS or Solaris builds may require third-party infrastructure).
The third binary in Jan's README.cnd,
* [C] 5CAB59D859CAA6598E28131D30DD2E89806DB57F-antlr-3.4.jar
Is exactly the antlr-3.4 "complete" variant (i.e., the runtime + the
compiler) but can be easily tracked and used (BSD-3 license).
No questions regarding these binaries, then.
3) MISSING MODULE "cnd.antlr"
Jan's README.cnd [1] also lists a module that was not donated by Oracle:
* cnd/modules/org-netbeans-modules-cnd-antlr.jar =>
cnd/libs.antlr.cnd/external
This "cnd.antlr" module in NetBeans 8.2 seems to be a fork of Antlr 2 or
Antlr 3. This module is used to _compile_ different grammars in other
modules in CND (this is equivalent to the "antlr.Tool" in antlr
"complete" variants):
[GRAMMARS]
* cnd.apt (aptexpr.g, aptlexer.g, aptBigIntegerExpr.g)
* cnd.asm (DisScanner.g, IdentScanner.g, ATTSCanner.g)
* cnd.modelimpl (Evaluator.g, CXXParser.g (empty), cppparser.g above,
missing)
The "cnd.antlr" binary is also used to _run_ the compiled grammars above
(this is equivalent to antlr-runtime libraries) for the cnd.apt,
cnd.asm, cnd.modelimpl _and_ cnd.kit.
As far as I know we _cannot_ include the binary of NetBeans 8.2
"cnd.antlr" in Apache NetBeans, neither in the original version nor in
the Oracle's donatin "libs.antlr.cnd", because it's covered by
CDDL/GPLvCE. And here comes the second question:
Q.2.: We may not include the _binary_ of NetBeans 8.2 "cnd.antlr" in
Apache NetBeans, right? So the current "cnd/libs.antlr.cnd" cannot be
shipped with Apache NetBeans either.
4) NEXT STEPS
Some (I didn't test all) of these [GRAMMARS] don't compile with
antlr.Tool V2.7.2, V3.4 nor V3.5.2. You can try yourself running java
-cp [antlr.jar] antlr.Tool the-grammar-file.g
This possibly implies that the module "cnd.antlr" has suffered many
variations while inside NetBeans during the years, has significantly
diverged from antlr, and the grammars that once compiled with antlr do
not compile without it right now.
To clarify: some/all of [GRAMMARS] above can only be compiled with
"cnd.antlr".
I think we have the following options right now:
O.0 - Option 0: Keep libs.antlr.cnd
If the answer of Q.2 above says we can ship with a compiled
"cnd.antlr"/"libs.antlr.cnd" then we can move forward with this "as is".
O.1 - Option 1: Keep "cnd.antlr" as a compiler and create the runtime
We could use "cnd.antlr" to _compile_ the grammar files at build time
(even if this is GPL+CPE).
And then recreate the runtime portions of "cnd.antlr" that give support
to the running compiled grammars. By doing this we'll be able to ship
CND relatively soon (the time it takes to setup the compilation part and
to recreate the cnd.antlr runtime classes).
O.2 - Option 2: Upgrade the grammars
The second option could be to migrate the [GRAMMARS] to antlrv4. This
will possibly take more time, but will allow us to have more modern
grammars that are easier to maintain. Of course many modules (cnd.asm,
cnd.apt and cnd.kit, possibly others) will have to be recreated to
accept the change.
O.3 - Option 3: Use clang/libclang/LSP
The third option could be to delegate the lexing/parsing to third
parties that are more knowledgeable of C/C++/Objective C internals.
It seems "libclang" is a stable API we could use. We could also improve
the current Cpplite (LSP) and improve it.
Note that if we use LSP or libclang we should start thinking of a good
solution to build "compilation databases" (possibly from Makefiles too)
that all clang tools use to do proper parsing.
And here come the next questions:
Q.3.- Can you think of any other option to O.0...O.3 above?
Q.4.- Which option above (O.0, O.1, O.2, O.3 ... O.N) do you think is
the best one?
Thanks and apologies for this long email,
Antonio
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