QtCS2017 Before Runtime discussion
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Make the API easy?
- Copy on Write to avoid copies at runtime
- Can we do it at compile time?
- Let tools get const and references right
- Warn about unnecessary copies
- Clang can help here
Make changes easy
- API changes are expensive
- API looks outdated if not adapted to current paradigms (legacy code)
- How can we make them easy
- How can Clang help here
Clang Query
- Think about it as SQL for the AST
- Makes big changes much cheaper and secure
Immediate feedback vs overnight refactoring
- Both are important
- Immediate feedback reduces refactorings and reviews
- Run refactorings overnight for expansive refactorings
- Integration with the CI
Notes
- need real examples
- QtCreator supports only very basic refactoring tools
- having tools outside of QtCreator and use these tools maybe inside
- API changes need to be available by Clangtidy scripts (?)
- what about templates?
- concept
- the tools cannot fit to all cases
- this kind of tools can help to move to Qt 6(or other future versions)
- renaming methods would be easier with this kind of tools
- mental work to remember this new name is still there
- can a tool do exchange deprecate things with the new "right" thing
- using clang "Fixit" maybe possible
- clang is here a tool and not the only compiler
- these "Fixit" information should be inside the code
- if it is not there it will lose sync to the code
- maybe inside the code there can be a link to something?
- how far can we get with transformation with tools?
- Clangtidy is alreadys there
- can have plugins
- how can it be a part of our workflow
- these tools are not available on all desktop platforms
- so this can not the only way to do these transformations
- example: new Qt connections -> running transformation -> slightly different behavior
- problem with #ifdef sections
- kind of cross compilation with clangtidy with necessary defines
- possibility to skip some of the problematic headers
- warn about section where we can not do our work
- the tool only helps when changes are there, but it should not decrease the border to have these changes