Re: [RFC] database with API information

[Richard Sandiford <richard.sandiford@arm.com>]

Ulrich Drepper via Gcc <gcc@gcc.gnu.org> writes:
> I talked to Jonathan the other day about adding all the C++ library APIs to
> the name hint file now that the size of the table is not really a concern
> anymore.
>
> Jonathan mentioned that he has to create and maintain a similar file for
> the module support.  It needs to list all the exported interfaces and this
> is mostly a superset of the entries in the hint table.
>
> Instead of duplicating the information it should be kept in one place.
> Neither file itself is a natural fit because the additional information
> needed  (e.g., the standard version information for the name hint table) is
> not needed in the other location.
>
> Hence, let's use a simple database, a CSV file for simplicity, and generate
> both files from this.  Easily done, I have an appropriate script and a CSV
> file with the information of both Jonathan's current export file and the
> current state of the name hint table.
>
> The only detail that keeps me from submitting this right now is the way the
> script is implemented.  This is just a natural fit for a Python script.
> The default installation comes with a csv module and there are nice ways to
> adjust and output boilerplate headers like those needed in those files.
>
> It would be possible to create separate awk scripts (there is only one
> Python script) but it'll be rather ugly and harder to maintain than the
> Python version.
>
> Of course the problem is: I don't think that there is yet any maintainer
> tool written in Python (except some release engineering tools).  The
> question is therefore: is it time to lift this restriction?  I cannot today
> imagine any machine capable of serving a gcc developer which doesn't also
> have a Python implementation.  As long as there is no dependency on exotic
> modules I doubt that anything will break.

FWIW, I agree it's past time to lift the no-Python restriction,
and that Python is a natural fit for stuff like this.

Thanks,
Richard