[pkgsrc/trunk]: pkgsrc/pkgtools/pkglint Pinned down the collected problems of...

[rillig <rillig%pkgsrc.org@localhost>]

details:   https://anonhg.NetBSD.org/pkgsrc/rev/4097011feb74
branches:  trunk
changeset: 507538:4097011feb74
user:      rillig <rillig%pkgsrc.org@localhost>
date:      Sat Feb 04 04:10:12 2006 +0000

description:
Pinned down the collected problems of the current pkglint development.

diffstat:

 pkgtools/pkglint/README |  33 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 files changed, 33 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

diffs (37 lines):

diff -r 636440570fa3 -r 4097011feb74 pkgtools/pkglint/README
--- /dev/null   Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/pkgtools/pkglint/README   Sat Feb 04 04:10:12 2006 +0000
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+$NetBSD: README,v 1.1 2006/02/04 04:10:12 rillig Exp $
+
+== Current problems ==
+
+The current pkglint architecture will not scale much further. What is
+needed next are parsers for nested, non-context-free languages (make(1),
+sh(1), sed(1)). The parsers should be able to recognize partial
+structures, as well as structures containing foreign parts. This is
+because most of pkgsrc is heavily based on preprocessors:
+
+- The .if and .for directives in Makefiles are preprocessed by make(1)
+  before building dependencies and shell commands out of the remaining
+  text.
+
+- make(1) assembles shell commands from literal text and variables like
+  ${PKGNAME}.
+
+- Shell commands often use dynamic evaluation of variables.
+
+All this makes enhancing pkglint non-trivial. If you know of any
+academic papers that might be of help in this case, please tell me.
+
+Additionally, the Perl programming language is not well suited to this
+kind of tool. It does not provide:
+
+- Sufficient static checking (especially for names of methods)
+- A type system (you can apply almost any operator to any kind of data)
+- Object orientation (needed for the future advanced parsers)
+- Narrow scope for constants (it's just ugly)
+- Enumeration data types
+- Structured data types
+
+The pkglint source code is much too big for a single file.