Home » Language IDEs » C / C++ IDE (CDT) » Named Arguments View idea for Eclipse
Named Arguments View idea for Eclipse [message #128779] |
Thu, 25 November 2004 15:01  |
Eclipse User |
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Dear All,
I feel an idea deserved my effort to push it here. Please see below.
>From: "Mike Milinkovich" <mike.milinkovich@eclipse.org>
>To: coolspeech@hotmail.com
>Subject: RE: Named Arguments View idea for Eclipse IDE
>Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2004 13:50:46 -0500 (EST)
>
>
>Yao,
>
>I think that the best approach would be to post this idea on the
eclipse.platform
>newsgroup and see if people are interested.
>
>Thanks for thinking of us.
>
>Mike Milinkovich
>Executive Director,
>Eclipse Foundation, Inc.
>Office: 613-224-9461 x228
>Cell: 613-220-3223
>mike.milinkovich@eclipse.org
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ByteCool Software [mailto:coolspeech@hotmail.com]
> > Sent: November 25, 2004 6:29 AM
> > To: info@eclipse.org
> > Subject: Named Arguments View idea for Eclipse IDE
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > Please direct the following to the IDE development team of Eclipse.
> >
> > It's about an invention called Named Arguments View (NAV)
> > that specifically enhances IDE products like Eclipse. It will
> > allow major programming languages such as C/C++, Java and
> > Delphi/Pascal to take advantage of an important readability
> > feature called "named arguments" with the assistance from
> > IDE. I have done a survey for this idea among many developers
> > (even the IBM Eclipse Team) and got overwhelmingly support,
> > which encouraged me to seek adoption by major IDE makers like Eclipse.
> >
> > The term "named arguments" refers to an established and
> > popular language feature adopted by some programming
> > languages such as VB, Python, Ada, Common Lisp and C#. Other
> > major languages such as Pascal, C/C++ and Java don't support
> > it natively in their language specs. Typically, a C/C++
> > function call is written as such:
> >
> > result = memcpy(p2, p1, 10);
> >
> > This style of function call writing is dubbed "positional
> > arguments". In contrast, writing a function call in the
> > "named arguments" manner is like
> > this:
> >
> > result = memcpy(Dest: p2, Src: p1, Bytes: 10);
> >
> > As you see, the "named arguments" style has much better
> > program text readability than the positional. Better code
> > readability makes a program easier to debug and easier to
> > maintain. Unfortunately, for historical reasons, C/C++ as the
> > de facto industrial standard and other major languages don't
> > support it, making such highly readable code syntactically invalid.
> > Over decades people are constantly proposing this new
> > language feature to ANSI but to no avail, because ANSI
> > doesn't want incompatibility problems with older compilers.
> >
> > So I thought: since one can't modify the C/C++ language spec
> > but still wants the syntax sugar of named arguments, why not
> > implement this feature on the IDE layer? Sitting between the
> > programmer and the actual source code, the IDE can provide an
> > alternative "view" - Named Arguments View that, when
> > activated, lets the programmer view and edit source code that
> > looks as if it were "named arguments supported". That is to
> > say, all occurrences of function calls in the source code
> > editor window immediately become like
> > this:
> >
> > result = memcpy(Dest: p2, Src: p1, Bytes: 10);
> >
> > But remember this is only a "view" for the programmer to
> > interact with; the actual source code is still saved
> > to/loaded from disk and passed to compiler in the original
> > C/C++ format:
> >
> > result = memcpy(p2, p1, 10);
> >
> > The IDE should also be able to automatically maintain the
> > argument name tags ("Dest:", "Src:", "Bytes:") in the NAV
> > mode: (1) Automatically provide an initial argument list
> > "(Dest: , Src: , Bytes: )" when the function call is being
> > composed; (2) Automatically sync argument name tags when the
> > function declaration is updated.
> >
> > Argument name tags can be optionally painted in a special
> > color/text formatting.
> >
> > That's all for the idea. I hope you will discuss on the
> > merits and possible implementation of this to the Eclipse
> > IDE. I also permit royalty-free use of this idea for Eclipse.
> >
> >
> > Best Regards,
> > Yao Ziyuan
> >
> >
> >
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Re: Named Arguments View idea for Eclipse [message #128951 is a reply to message #128779] |
Fri, 26 November 2004 11:22  |
Eclipse User |
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Originally posted by: johan.nosp.m.appeal.se
Put this in the Bugzilla, I want to CC myself.
//Johan
Yao Ziyuan wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> I feel an idea deserved my effort to push it here. Please see below.
>
>
>
> >From: "Mike Milinkovich" <mike.milinkovich@eclipse.org>
> >To: coolspeech@hotmail.com
> >Subject: RE: Named Arguments View idea for Eclipse IDE
> >Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2004 13:50:46 -0500 (EST)
> >
> >
> >Yao,
> >
> >I think that the best approach would be to post this idea on the
> eclipse.platform
> >newsgroup and see if people are interested.
> >
> >Thanks for thinking of us.
> >
> >Mike Milinkovich
> >Executive Director,
> >Eclipse Foundation, Inc.
> >Office: 613-224-9461 x228
> >Cell: 613-220-3223
> >mike.milinkovich@eclipse.org
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: ByteCool Software [mailto:coolspeech@hotmail.com]
> > > Sent: November 25, 2004 6:29 AM
> > > To: info@eclipse.org
> > > Subject: Named Arguments View idea for Eclipse IDE
> > >
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > Please direct the following to the IDE development team of Eclipse.
> > >
> > > It's about an invention called Named Arguments View (NAV)
> > > that specifically enhances IDE products like Eclipse. It will
> > > allow major programming languages such as C/C++, Java and
> > > Delphi/Pascal to take advantage of an important readability
> > > feature called "named arguments" with the assistance from
> > > IDE. I have done a survey for this idea among many developers
> > > (even the IBM Eclipse Team) and got overwhelmingly support,
> > > which encouraged me to seek adoption by major IDE makers like Eclipse.
> > >
> > > The term "named arguments" refers to an established and
> > > popular language feature adopted by some programming
> > > languages such as VB, Python, Ada, Common Lisp and C#. Other
> > > major languages such as Pascal, C/C++ and Java don't support
> > > it natively in their language specs. Typically, a C/C++
> > > function call is written as such:
> > >
> > > result = memcpy(p2, p1, 10);
> > >
> > > This style of function call writing is dubbed "positional
> > > arguments". In contrast, writing a function call in the
> > > "named arguments" manner is like
> > > this:
> > >
> > > result = memcpy(Dest: p2, Src: p1, Bytes: 10);
> > >
> > > As you see, the "named arguments" style has much better
> > > program text readability than the positional. Better code
> > > readability makes a program easier to debug and easier to
> > > maintain. Unfortunately, for historical reasons, C/C++ as the
> > > de facto industrial standard and other major languages don't
> > > support it, making such highly readable code syntactically invalid.
> > > Over decades people are constantly proposing this new
> > > language feature to ANSI but to no avail, because ANSI
> > > doesn't want incompatibility problems with older compilers.
> > >
> > > So I thought: since one can't modify the C/C++ language spec
> > > but still wants the syntax sugar of named arguments, why not
> > > implement this feature on the IDE layer? Sitting between the
> > > programmer and the actual source code, the IDE can provide an
> > > alternative "view" - Named Arguments View that, when
> > > activated, lets the programmer view and edit source code that
> > > looks as if it were "named arguments supported". That is to
> > > say, all occurrences of function calls in the source code
> > > editor window immediately become like
> > > this:
> > >
> > > result = memcpy(Dest: p2, Src: p1, Bytes: 10);
> > >
> > > But remember this is only a "view" for the programmer to
> > > interact with; the actual source code is still saved
> > > to/loaded from disk and passed to compiler in the original
> > > C/C++ format:
> > >
> > > result = memcpy(p2, p1, 10);
> > >
> > > The IDE should also be able to automatically maintain the
> > > argument name tags ("Dest:", "Src:", "Bytes:") in the NAV
> > > mode: (1) Automatically provide an initial argument list
> > > "(Dest: , Src: , Bytes: )" when the function call is being
> > > composed; (2) Automatically sync argument name tags when the
> > > function declaration is updated.
> > >
> > > Argument name tags can be optionally painted in a special
> > > color/text formatting.
> > >
> > > That's all for the idea. I hope you will discuss on the
> > > merits and possible implementation of this to the Eclipse
> > > IDE. I also permit royalty-free use of this idea for Eclipse.
> > >
> > >
> > > Best Regards,
> > > Yao Ziyuan
> > >
> > >
> > >
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