Re: [RFC] auto-generate most target debug methods

[Pedro Alves <palves@redhat.com>]

On 07/17/2014 05:03 PM, Tom Tromey wrote:

> Pedro> I wonder about generating the target_foo() entry point methods too...
> 
> FWIW I hadn't thought of it.  Looking a little, there seems to be a bit
> less uniformity here.  Some of the entry points do extra work, and some
> have extra arguments (I happened to see target_get_section_table).

Hmm, I think you might have looked at some other method.  That one's
arguments seem to match.

But yeah, there's some missing uniformity here.  E.g., target_terminal_inferior
is currently horrible for actually bypassing calling the target method
in some cases.  target_detach is another case that does extra work.

> Of course anything's doable with either some refactoring or more macro
> annotations.

Yeah.

> I think the question I would start with is what we would expect to get
> from the transform.  For the delegation series I think we got a pretty
> big reduction in confusion.  And for this patch I think we get not just
> more uniform and useful debug output, but also simpler maintenance.

I was thinking simpler maintenance and clearer resulting code, by enforcing
the rule that the entry point does nothing more than calling the
target_ops method, to avoid surprises like target_terminal_inferior.

> One possible benefit from automating the target_* entry points is
> simpler maintenance as well.  However this has to be weighed against the
> loss of readability that comes from having the top-level API disappear
> behind a veil of macros and/or generator scripts.

Definitely.

-- 
Pedro Alves