ENB: Sweet spots in the new importers

[Edward K. Ream]

This Engineering Notebook post discusses design issues involving balance. 

Importer methods

There is a constant tension between simplicity and generality. The new code generally gets the balance exactly right.

i.delete_comments_and_strings: Leo's per-language settings tell this method about comments and strings. Perfection!

i.find_blocks: Importers define two overrides. Today's Aha about validating potential blocks may make the overrides unnecessary.

i.find_end_of_block: Importers define three overrides. All seem necessary.

i.__init__: Recent revs have removed almost all ivars. It may be possible to eliminate this ctor! Doing so would have happy ripple effects.

Pattern matching

i.find_blocks matches regex patterns line by line. As a result, wildcard matches such as *.? have no performance issues. Patterns suggest candidate matches. c_i.find_end_of_block will validate those candidates with a simple scanner.

Summary

The new importers have found the sweet spot between simplicity and generality. In most cases, simplicity creates generality.

Finding candidate matches line-by-line prevents performance bugs while allowing arbitrarily complex function signatures.

Balance is uppermost in my mind as I complete Leo's importers. I have a rare opportunity to create perfection!

Edward

[Edward K. Ream]

On Wednesday, May 17, 2023 at 7:50:21 AM UTC-5 Edward K. Ream wrote:

i.__init__: ...It may be possible to eliminate this ctor!

Not likely. self.c will always be required. But everything else can probably go. In fact, the Importer class is already stateless.

Edward