On a related note, are there any good tools for static code analysis around? The usual cross-reference stuff would be handy, but ideally something that goes further.
Graphical would be good, interactive better (or at least cooler :). Perhaps something like www.kartoo.com (needs flash) or http://www.touchgraph.com/TGGoogleBrowser.html (needs java) that lets you "explore" the relationships between things. And, in case you're not familar with it, the "ID database" is a very useful tool (quite old and alomost lost in the mists of time): http://www.math.utah.edu/docs/info/mkid_toc.html I highly recommend it. Tim. On Sat, Sep 28, 2002 at 10:46:36PM -0400, Erik Lechak wrote: > Hello All, > > I hope this is the correct place for my post. I have not seen many (or > any) newbie parrot questions on this group. Please direct me to the > correct group and forgive my intrusion if this message is misposted. > > I would like to start helping in the development of parrot. I have read > the documentation, the design docs, and went over the source, but I am > still a little lost. I would eventually like to help with the coding, > but it appears that there may be a pressing need for a document helping > newbie developers figure out how to get started. I would be willing to > take on this task (Well at least until I learn enough so that I can code.) > > 1)If you would like me to do it, who would I send the document and its > updates to? > > 2)I am a diagram oriented person. If I include diagrams (gifs, png ...) > in the document, how would you want me to do this (html, ref the image > file ...)? Any prefs in the image format? > > 3)Do I have to use pod? No offense, but I can't stand pod. The pdd > design document states that pod is the "...documentation language for > All Things Perl", but this is Parrot not Perl. And this document would > not be a design doc. If Parrot is supposed to be a cross language VM, > why do people need to know pod to read (or write) the docs? I know that > it is easy to convert pod to an easy to read format, but would a > developer with little perl experience know that? Parrot is trying to > encourage developers from areas other than perl, so why discourage them > by introducing them to parrot with pod documents. > > Could there possibly be a parrot comment style? It could be used > instead of other comment styles internal to parrot. Use it in the > c-code, the perl code, the parrot assembly code, and to write the > documentation. Then a (perl) preprocessor could strip it out before it > is compiled or run. Normally I would not suggest such a thing, but > there is a lot of code generation and manipulation going on anyway. It > could allow for document generation of all the parrot source, assembly, > tests, and documents into a javadoc-like html reference. Or maybe I'm > just dreaming. > > Please go easy on me for not liking pod. > > Thanks, > Erik Lechak >
