Jonathan Turkanis wrote:
Matthew Vogt wrote:
Anyhow, my problem with the macro-based IDL is that it obscures the function signatures so badly, partly by separating the components so I don't recognise them as a signature, and partly by encasing them in a dense text block.
I think that this:
BOOST_IDL_BEGIN(Interface) BOOST_IDL_CONST_FN2(print, void, ostream&, int) BOOST_IDL_END(Interface)
is readability-wise so far away from:
struct Interface { void print(ostream&, int) const; };
that it is an enormous hurdle for BIL to overcome.
I'm sympathetic to this point of view. The reason it doesn't seem so bad to me is that only a relatively small part of coding with BIL is actually defining interfaces; the code which uses the interfaces is just ordinary C++.
Do you have any suggestions for improving the macro syntax? For instance, do you like David Abrahams's suggested syntax better:
DECLARE_INTERFACE( Interface, ((int)(print)(ostream&)(int)) );
?
(I'm not sure where to stick 'const')
Or the one I use for my project... INHERITED(INTERFACE(DataTransferEvent),Event) ENUM(DataTransferEventType) NAME(Type VALUE(0x003)) ENUM_CLOSE ENUM(Request) NAME(DataExtent) NAME(Data) NAME(Complete) ENUM_CLOSE METHOD(DataTransferEvent::Request,getRequest,ARGS0,throw()) VOID_METHOD(getRequestData,ARGS2(UInt64&,UInt64&),throw()) VOID_METHOD(readDataExtent,ARGS1(UInt64&),throw()) VOID_METHOD(readData,ARGS3(UInt64&,UInt64&,Pointer&),throw()) METHOD(bool,isComplete,ARGS0,throw()) VOID_METHOD(setDataExtent,ARGS1(UInt64),throw()) VOID_METHOD(setData,ARGS3(UInt64,UInt64,Pointer),throw()) VOID_METHOD(setComplete,ARGS0,throw()) INTERFACE_CLOSE INTERFACE(Exception) METHOD(UString,getMessage,ARGS0,throw()) METHOD(UString,getDescription,ARGS0,throw()) DECLARE_NESTED(INTERFACE(PreconditionViolation)) DECLARE_NESTED(INTERFACE(InvalidArgument)) DECLARE_NESTED(INTERFACE(InvalidResult)) INTERFACE_CLOSE (and many more.. documentation comments and whitespace elided) -- -- Grafik - Don't Assume Anything -- Redshift Software, Inc. - http://redshift-software.com -- rrivera/acm.org - grafik/redshift-software.com - 102708583/icq