Hi, now that the new otags version is already for some time in testing I would like to discuss the issue of parsing errors in /usr/lib/ocaml when running update-otags.
update-otags runs daily as cron-job and builds tags tables for all material in /usr/lib/ocaml. Some of the files there are however not in standard syntax and therefore the otags parser silently dies on them. Most of the time the problem is that the file is written in revised syntax, but some files do also require other parsing extensions (eg, /usr/lib/ocaml/camlp4/test/fixtures/macrotest.mli from package camlp4 needs the macro parser). It would of course be nice if otags knew about the necessary parsing extensions for each file, such that the generated tags table would cover all files in /usr/lib/ocaml. The point of this email is to discuss how to tell otags which parsing extension it should use for which file. I see the following solutions (most preferred comes first): 1. Establish a standard for describing necessary parsing extensions in the file itself. For example, the file camlp4/Camlp4/Sig.ml in the ocaml distribution contains as first line (* camlp4r *) There is of course more disambiguation needed. One possibility is to take the first word or string inside the first comment that follows ``-pp''. This way one could write (* compile with -pp camlp4r *) or (* compile with -pp "camlp4r macro" *) Such a standard would not only be useful for otags, but also for build tools such as ocamlbuild. Those tools could extract the necessary parsing extension from the file then. Such a standard needs of course some consensus on the ocaml list, but I am only suggesting it there, if I get support from the Debian ocaml maintainers. 2. Extend otags such that it is able to read parsing hints from some file. Require each package that installs files in /usr/lib/ocaml to provide suitable parsing hints for those files that are not standard syntax. 3. Use parsing hints as in 2., but ship the parsing hints for all files in the otags package. Bye, Hendrik -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected] Archive: http://lists.debian.org/[email protected]
