C# support (was: Re: objc)

[Roberto Raggi]

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hi all,

what do you think to add it to kdevelop/HACKING and/or to kdevelop.org

ciao robe

On Thursday 26 June 2003 22:30, you wrote:
> On Thursday 26 June 2003 07:28 am, Daniel Engelschalt wrote:
> > alexander, this very good explanation should be put somewhere in the
> > public.
> >
> > bye,
> > daniel
>
> I agree.  I cleaned it up a bit and made it more generic.  You'll find it
> inline below (I tried to attach it, but my cvs KMail keeps crashing).  I
> don't know what an appropriate avenue would be for dissemination (i.e.,
> make a webpage or just rename it HACKING.newlanguage, and put it in
> /usr/share/doc/kdevelop/), but it should be fairly easy to do whatever.
>
>
> HOW TO ADD SUPPORT FOR A LANGUAGE IN KDEVELOP (GIDEON)
>
> Before beginning:  To add support for a language in KDevelop, you need
> to be more than passingly familiar with C++, language parsing,
> the language you are adding, and KDE/QT.  This is not something that
> an beginner developer should try to complete.  However, you *can*
> get minimal language support without too much trouble.  That said, lets
> move on...
>
> List of things to have "complete" support of a given language in KDevelop:
>
> o) Implement interface KDevlLanguageSupport
> o) Language parser for class browser
> o) UI subclassing (if the language has Qt bindings)
> o) Problem reporter (parses source on the fly and reports syntax errors)
> o) Syntax highlighter (add to QEditor if not available elsewhere)
> o) Project manager (make/ant/etc)
> o) Source file templates
> o) Application wizard
> o) Source code abbreviations  (ife expands to an if else statement, etc)
> o) Source formatter (prettyprint functionality)
> o) Debugger (gdb/jdb/??? integration)
>
> Explanations, hints, tips, and all around Good Things To Know, regarding
> that list:
>
> Any language support should be written as a kdevelop part and implement
> KDevLanguageSupport interface (lib/interfaces/kdevlanguagesupport.h).
> Implementing methods:
>     virtual Features features();
>     virtual KMimeType::List mimeTypes();
> should be enough for a language support to start working.  A KDevelop
> part is available as a New Project type: C++->KDevelop->KDevelop Part.
> FIXME: CAN YOU USE EITHER STANDALONE OR SOURCE TREE BUILD, OR DO YOU
> NEED ONE IN PARTICULAR?
>
> You should look at parts/rubysupport for a simple language support
> implementation. For a compilable language support, consult parts/adasupport
> or parts/pascalsupport (they are not so complex as cppsupport).  Pascal
> would be a good starting place, as it is the smaller of the two by far.
>
> Language support can offer additional features:
> new class wizard: (See cppsupport)
>     virtual void addClass();
> add method dialog: (See adasupport or cppsupport)
>     virtual void addMethod(const QString &className);
> add attribute dialog: (See cppsupport)
>     virtual void addAttribute(const QString &className);
>
> If there is a Qt bindings for your language and there is a possibility
> to use QtDesigner ui files, you could implement ui subclassing feature:
>     virtual QStringList subclassWidget(const QString& formName);
>     virtual QStringList updateWidget(const QString& formName, const
> QString& fileName);
> See cppsupport and javasupport for examples.
>
> If you write (or have) a language parser, your language support can have
> "class store" (a database containing the information about scopes, classes
> and methods - their names, names of source files, location in source files,
> etc.). Class store libraries can be found at lib/catalog and
> lib/sourceinfo. KDevelop provides class browsers that extract information
> from a class store and display it in a tree view and toolbar selectors of
> scopes, classes and methods.
>
> Catalog is the new persistant class store for KDevelop written by Roberto
> Raggi and everybody is highly encouraged to use it. Take a look at
> parts/cppsupport for an example of using catalog. parts/pascalsupport will
> be based on a catalog (check it out within a two weeks (06/26/03). Catalog
> is stored on disk in the database file (Berkeley db) If you use catalog,
> your class browser will be parts/classbrowser.
>
> Sourceinfo is the deprecated class store. Look at parts/adasupport
> (especially interesting is ada.store.g grammar file) to find out how it is
> filled by a parser with information. This class store can't be saved onto a
> disk. The class browser for a sourceinfo based stores is parts/classview.
>
> Class store enables you to write a code completion for the language. At the
> moment (06/25/03), code completion is available only to cppsupport so take
> a look at it for an example.
>
> In general, class stores can be filled with information without specialized
> and complex language parsers (take a look at parts/pythonsupport that have
> a very simple python parser) but your language support will surely benefit
> from having such. There is a hand-written c/c++ parser (lib/cppparser) in
> KDevelop that might be used for ObjC or related C-based languages. Other
> (not so complex as c++) languages can be parsed by ANTLR based parsers
> (library is in lib/antlr). Consult www.antlr.org for a ANTLR documentation
> and look at parts/javasupport, parts/adasupport and parts/pascalsupport for
> an example of using such parsers. The latest version of ANTLR (2.7.2)
> has support for Java, C, Pascal, Ada, C++, CIM, HTML, IDL, Verilog,
> VRML, OCL, ASN.1, and SQL.  You can write an ANTLR parser for your own
> language, of course.
>
> If you have a language parser, you can implement "problem reporter"
> functionality for your language. The problem reporter catches errors
> reported by a parser and displays it in a problem reporter view.
> parts/javasupport, parts/adasupport, parts/pascalsupport and
> parts/cppsupport have problem reporters.
>
> The language support is important, but it is unusable without a project
> manager that can manage projects written on this language. KDevelop
> currently provides several project managers. They are:
> Automake manager        parts/autoproject
> QMake manager       parts/trollproject
> Custom project manager  parts/customproject
>     (works with custom makefiles, also has ant support)
> Script project manager  parts/scriptproject
>     (the generic project manager for all scripting languages).
> Also available parts/pascalproject and parts/adaproject (they are the
> project managers for a compiled language with main source file concept).
> Choose your project manager and if the existing project managers don't fit
> in, you can modify parts/customproject to use a specific build tool or help
> us to develop "generic project manager" suitable for every language and
> build tool (there are some ideas which haven't been implemented yet).
>
> Application wizard templates should be also written. Appwizard templates
> are simple to create - consult parts/appwizard/README and look at
> parts/appwizard/rubyhello, parts/appwizard/pascalhello or
> parts/appwizard/adahello.
>
> Another thing to do is to create filecreate templates. They are prototypes
> for a source files of your language. These prototypes are placed in
> parts/filecreate/file-templates dir and have names equal to the extensions
> of language source files. The description of the prototypes is placed
> in parts/filecreate/template-info.xml. Consult parts/filecreate/README
> for further information.
>
> KDevelop has a support for code abbrevations so you can add some predefined
> abbrevations to your language support. Take parts/cppsupport/cpptemplates
> as an example.
>
> To edit source files KDevelop uses any editor that supports KTextEditor
> interface. In case none from the editors support advanced editing of
> sources written on your language (like code folding, syntax highlighting,
> line indentation) you can improve QEditor included in KDevelop
> (parts/qeditor). By creating QEditorIndenter and QSourceColorizer
> descendants you can provide the support for an automatic indentation and
> syntax highlighting that will be available for sure in KDevelop.
>
> To obtain source formatter functionality (that is already available to
> c-based languages) you can improve astyle library (lib/astyle) that is used
> by KDevelop to format sources.
>
> The last thing to have a complete language support in KDevelop is to
> write a debugger support. KDevelop already provides GDB support
> (parts/debugger) and JDB (java debugger) support (parts/javadebugger).
> Take a look at them to get inspiration.
>
> See also HACKING file for an information on how to create a generic
> KDevelop plugin and how to manage project and global configuration
> information.
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