Automatic insertion of multiline declaration comments - emacs

Have anybody extended comment-dwim to automagically insert a multi-line comment like
/** ...
*/
void foo
{
}
if the cursor is currently in front of a function/variable definition/declaration?
I realize that the challenge here is context detection; could a call to end-of-defun() followed by a call to beginning-of-defun() be used here?

Related

D: Delegates or callbacks?

I found conception of Delegates pretty hard for me. I really do not understand why I can't simply pass one function to another and need to wrap it to Delegate. I read in docs that there is some cases when I do not know it's name and Delegate is only way to call it.
But now I have trouble in understanding conception of callbacks. I tried to find more information, but I can't understand is it's simply call of other function or what is it.
Could you show examples of D callbacks and explain where they can be helpful?
import vibe.d;
shared static this()
{
auto settings = new HTTPServerSettings;
settings.port = 8080;
listenHTTP(settings, &handleRequest);
}
void handleRequest(HTTPServerRequest req,
HTTPServerResponse res)
{
if (req.path == "/")
res.writeBody("Hello, World!", "text/plain");
}
&handleRequest is it callback? How it's work and at what moment it's start?
So within memory a function is just a pile of bytes. Like an array, you can take a pointer to it. This is a function pointer. It has a type of RETT function(ARGST) in D. Where RETT is the return type and ARGST are the argument types. Of course attributes can be applied like any function declaration.
Now delegates are a function pointer with a context pointer. A context pointer can be anything from a single integer (argument), call frame (function inside of another) or lastly a class/struct.
A delegate is very similar to a function pointer type at RETT delegate(ARGST). They are not interchangeable, but you can turn a function pointer into a delegate pointer pretty easily.
The concept of a callback is to say, hey I know you will know about X so when that happens please tell me about X by calling this function/delegate.
To answer your question about &handleRequest, yes it is a callback.
You can pass functions to other functions to later be called.
void test(){}
void receiver(void function() fn){
// call it like a normal function with 'fn()'
// or pass it around, save it, or ignore it
}
// main
receiver(&test); // 'test' will be available as 'fn' in 'receiver'
You need to prepend the function name as argument with & to clarify you want to pass a function pointer. If you don't do that, it will instead call that function due to UFCS (calling without braces). It is not a delegate yet.
The function that receives your callable may do whatever it wants with it. A common example is in your question, a web service callback. First you tell the framework what should be done in case a request is received (by defining actions in a function and making that function available for the framework), and in your example enter a loop with listenHTTP which calls your code when it receives a request. If you want to read more on this topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_(computing)#Event_handler
Delegates are function pointers with context information attached. Say you want to add handlers that act on other elements available in the current context. Like a button that turns an indicator red. Example:
class BuildGui {
Indicator indicator;
Button button;
this(){
... init
button.clickHandler({ // curly braces: implicit delegate in this case
indicator.color = "red"; // notice access of BuildGui member
});
button.clickHandler(&otherClickHandler); // methods of instances can be delegates too
}
void otherClickHandler(){
writeln("other click handler");
}
}
In this imaginary Button class all click handlers are saved to a list and called when it is clicked.
There were several questions in the OP. I am going to try to answer the following two:
Q: Could you show examples of D callbacks and explain where they can be helpful?
A: They are commonly used in all languages that support delegates (C# for an example) as event handlers. - You give a delegate to be called whenever an event is triggered. Languages that do not support delegates use either classes, or callback functions for this purpose. Example how to use callbacks in C++ using the FLTK 2.0 library: http://www.fltk.org/doc-2.0/html/group__example2.html. Delegates are perfect for this as they can directly access the context. When you use callbacks for this purpose you have to pass along all the objects you want to modify in the callback... Check the mentioned FLTK link as an example - there we have to pass a pointer to the fltk::Window object to the window_callback function in order to manipulate it. (The reason why FLTK does this is that back FLTK was born C++ did not have lambdas, otherwise they would use them instead of callbacks)
Example D use: http://dlang.org/phobos/std_signals.html
Q: Why I can't simply pass one function to another and need to wrap it to Delegate?
A: You do not have to wrap to delegates - it depends what you want to accomplish... Sometimes passing callbacks will just work for you. You can't access context in which you may want to call the callback, but delegates can. You can, however pass the context along (and that is what some C/C++ libraries do).
I think what you are asking is explained in the D language reference
Quote 1:
A function pointer can point to a static nested function
Quote 2:
A delegate can be set to a non-static nested function
Take a look at the last example in that section and notice how a delegate can be a method:
struct Foo
{
int a = 7;
int bar() { return a; }
}
int foo(int delegate() dg)
{
return dg() + 1;
}
void test()
{
int x = 27;
int abc() { return x; }
Foo f;
int i;
i = foo(&abc); // i is set to 28
i = foo(&f.bar); // i is set to 8
}
There are already excellent answers. I just want to try to make simple summary.
Simply: delegate allows you to use methods as callbacks.
In C, you do the same by explicitly passing the object (many times named context) as void* and cast it to (hopefully) right type:
void callback(void *context, ...) {
/* Do operations with context, which is usually a struct */
doSomething((struct DATA*)context, ...);
doSomethingElse((struct DATA*)context, ...);
}
In C++, you do the same when wanting to use method as callback. You make a function taking the object pointer explicitly as void*, cast it to (hopefully) right type, and call method:
void callback(void* object, ...) {
((MyObject*)object)->method(...);
}
Delegate makes this all implicitly.

Using boost::python::handle as temporary?

In a custom converter, I am checking whether a sequence item is some type. So far I've had this code (simplified)
namespace bp=boost::python;
/* ... */
static void* convertible(PyObject* seq_ptr){
if(!PySequence_Check(seq_ptr)) return 0;
for(int i=0; i<PySequence_Size(seq_ptr); i++)
if(!bp::extract<double>(PySequence_GetItem(seq_ptr,i)).check()) return 0;
/* ... */
}
/* ... */
but this is leaking memory, since PySequence_GetItem is returning a new reference. So either I can do something like this in the loop:
PyObject* it=PySequence_GetItem(seq_ptr,i);
bool ok(bp::extract<double>(it).check();
Py_DECREF(it); // will delete the object which had been newly created
if(!ok) return 0;
but that is quite clumsy; I could make a stand-alone function doing that, but that is where I recalled bp::handle implementing the ref-counting machinery; so something like this might do:
if(!bp::extract<double>(bp::handle<>(PySequence_GetItem(seq_ptr,i))).check()) return 0;
but this page mentions using handles as temporaries is discouraged. Why? Can the object be destroyed before .check() is actually called? Is there some other elegant way to write this?
The object will not be destroyed before the .check() is called and is safe in the posted context.
The recommendation to not use temporaries is due to the unspecified order of evaluation of the arguments and exception safety. If there is only one order in which arguments can be evaluated, such as in your example, then it is safe. For instance, consider function bad() which always throws an exception:
f(boost::python::handle<>(PySequence_GetItem(...)), bad());
If bad() gets evaluated between PySequence_GetItem(...) and boost::python::handle<>(...), then the new reference will be leaked as the stack will begin to unwind before the construction of boost::python::handle<>. On the other hand, when a non-temporary is used, there is no chance for something to throw between PySequence_GetItem() and boost::python::handle<>(), so the following is safe in the presence of exceptions:
boost::python::handle<> item_handle(PySequence_GetItem(...));
f(item_handle, bad());
Consider reading Herb Sutter's GotW #56: Exception-Safe Function Calls for more details.

Xtext, Xbase: infer questions

I'm going to write an inferrer for my dsl and I have some questions that I could not solve with only the help of documentation.
First one:
I need to create static void main() from a feature: how can I add static with .toMethod()?
Second one:
Suppose I have a rule in my dsl like this:
Sequence:
'SEQ' name=ID '{'
statements+=Statement*
'}'
;
Where Statement:
Statement:
Sequence | others...
;
Sequence must be mapped to a void method and the body of that method is composed from the traslation of statements.
But the problem is this: when inside a Sequence I'll find another Sequence I have to create a method for the new sequence and add a call in super sequence.
For example:
SEQ first {
instructions...
SEQ second {
other instructions....
}
instructions...
}
Must generate:
void first(){
instructions(translated)...
second();
instructions(translated)...
}
void second(){
other instructions(translated)...
}
Is it possible to realize it?
First question:
ctx.toMethod('main', ctx.newTypeRef(Void.Type)) [
static = true
….
]
Second question:
Implying that with 'instructions' you mean instances of 'XExpression', you need to trick a bit, as it is currently not possible to compose new expressions during inference.
What you coudl basically do is to make your Sequence a subtype of XExpression. Then during JvmModelInference you need to walk over your expression tree (Statement) and create methods for Sequences. you need to override the XbaseTypeComputer as well as the XbaseCompiler and add type computation and compile strategies for your expressions. The latter would be a call to the method created during inference.

How to declare unlimited/variadic parameters in DocBlock?

Lets say I have a function (obviously a trivial example):
public function dot(){
return implode('.', func_get_args());
}
Now I know I could modify this to be
public function dot(array $items){
return implode('.', $array);
}
but with some functions that is not an option. So, how would you document the first version of the function with a docBlock so an IDE can interpret that it can receive unlimited parameters?
I have seen some methods that use:
/**
* Joins one or more strings together with a . (dot)
* #param string $string1
* #param string $string2
* #param string $_ [optional]
* #return string
*/
public function dot($string1, $string2, $_ = null) {
return implode('.', func_get_args());
}
Which in an IDE looks like
But that feels like a hack to me, is there no way to do it just with docBlock?
[UPDATED 2015-01-08]
Old way to do this in PHPDoc was:
http://manual.phpdoc.org/HTMLSmartyConverter/HandS/phpDocumentor/tutorial_tags.param.pkg.html
/**
* #param int $param,...
**/
However, this is no longer supported. As of PHP 5.6 Variadic Method Parameters are a part of the PHP language, and the PHPDoc's have been updated to reflect this as of PHPDoc 2.4 if I recall correctly. This is also in the PhpStorm IDE as of EAP 139.659 (should be in 8.0.2 and up). Not sure about implementation of other IDEs.
https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/WI-20157
In any case, proper syntax for DocBlocks going forward for variadic parameters is:
/**
* #param int ...$param
**/
As Variadics are implemented in PHP 5.6 PHPDocumentor should support the following syntax as of version 2.4.
/**
* #param Type ...$value
* Note: PHP 5.6+ syntax equal to func_get_args()
*/
public function abc(Type ...$value) {}
This should be the correct way to describe such a signature. This will likely be included in PSR-5. Once that is accepted IDE's should follow to support this "official" recommendation.
However, in the mean time some IDE's have an improved understanding of what they consider correct. Hit hard on the IDE vendor to support the offical PHP syntax that is supported as of 5.6 or use whatever works in the meantime.
In php the concept of valist or list of "optional arguments" does not exist.
the $_ variable will just contain, here the third string you give.
The only way to allow an array OR a string is to test the first argument with is_array()
public function dot($arg1){
if(is_array($arg1)){
return implode('.',$arg1);
}
else if $arg1 instanceof \Traversable){
return implode('.',iterator_to_array($arg1));
}
else{
return implode('.',func_get_args());
}
}
Now that you handled the behaviour you want, you have to document it. In php, as overloading is not allowed, a convention is to use "mixed" as a type if you want to provide multiple types.
/**
*#param mixed $arg1 an array, iterator that will be joined OR first string of the list
*#return string a string with all strings of the list joined with a point
*#example dot("1","2","3"); returns 1.2.3 dot(array(1,2,3)); returns 1.2.3
*/
Moreover, according to phpdocumentor documentation you can declare sort of valist with
/**
*#param string ... list of strings
*/

Wordpress: Accessing A Plugin's Function From A Theme

I'm trying to add some functionality from a plugin I have made into a Wordpress theme but I am having little joy. The documentation doesn't really help me solve the problem so perhaps someone here can help.
I have a plugin in Wordpress that is activated and working fine. The class for this plugin has a function called generateHtml which I would like to access from a Wordpress Theme. But whatever I try, I cannot seem to access my plugin's code.
Can either give me a summary of what I need to do to get a theme accessing code from a plugin and/or point out there I am going wrong in my code:
Plugin:
<?php
/** Usual comments here **/
if (!class_exists("ImageRotator")) {
class ImageRotator {
private $uploadPath = '';
private $pluginPath = '';
private $options;
function __construct() {
$this->uploadPath = dirname(__file__).'\\uploads\\';
// add_shortcode('imagerotator', array(&$this, 'generateHtml'));
}
// Various functions for plugin
function generateHtml() {
echo '<p>Hello World</p>';
}
}
}
/**
* Create instance of image rotator
*/
$imageRotator = new ImageRotator();
/**
* Create actions & filters for Wordpress
*/
if (isset($imageRotator)) {
// Actions
add_action('admin_menu', array(&$imageRotator, 'createMenu'));
add_action('admin_init', array(&$imageRotator, 'registerSettings'));
add_action('imagerotator_show', array(&$imageRotator, 'generateHtml'));
}
Portion from theme header page:
<?php if (isset($imageRotator)) {
$imageRotator->generateHtml();
} else if (isset($ImageRotator)) {
print_r($ImageRotator);
} else {
echo '<p>Nope!</p>';
}
if (function_exists("imagerotator_show")) {
echo 'Function found';
} else {
echo 'Function NOT found';
}
?>
Currently all I ever see is "Nope" and "Function NOT found". Thanks for any input.
Lee,
For starters, "imagerotator_show" is not a function; it's the name of a type of action. When you use the add_action() function, Wordpress just adds your method to the list of functions/methods to call when a particular action is triggered. Thus your second test will always respond with 'Function NOT found'.
The most likely cause of the first problem is failing to declare the method you want to call as a public method. You're also making the code harder than it needs to be.
The best practice I've seen for declaring methods and registering hooks from a class looks something like this:
if ( ! class_exists( 'Foo' ) ):
class Foo {
function __construct() {
add_action( 'hook_name', array( &$this, 'my_hook_implementation' ) );
}
function my_hook_implementation() {
// does something
}
public function my_special_method() {
// does something else
}
}
if ( class_exists( 'Foo' ) ):
$MyFoo = new Foo();
This allows your class to keep all of its implementation details private. When you need to call my_special_method(), you do it as follows:
$MyFoo->my_special_method();
#andrew since I can't comment I thought I would answer your ancillary question. See:
http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/wordpress/create-wordpress-plugins-with-oop-techniques/
Where it is explained that when defining a callback function from an object you have to use the array function. It's basically saying get the function 'my_hook_implementation' from the object $this and use it as the callback parameter to the add action hook. It is because you defined the function within the scope of the object and you have to define the scope in order for PHP to know what function you are talking about. The scope being the object referred to by the variable $this.
You just need to use do_action() function, inside your theme.
If you want the function generateHtml to appears inside your header.php you just need to open the header.php file and paste <?php do_action('imagerotator_show'); ?> where you want and then your function will be called there.