[news.eclipse.technology.ldt] Re: Beyond textual represenations...

["Mike Kaufman" <mkaufman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Guillaume -

>
> So maybe a good compromise would be to extend the AST API in Eclipse so 
> that:
> - it is feasible to create a tool that reasons *only* on ASTs
> - a plugin could be developed that provides AST-level storage and SCM 
> (meaning filesystem storage would be another plugin)
>

Yes, I think this is a good compromise.  I think that part of the LDT's 
intial effort is going to be define APIs for a generic AST.  Consequently, 
tools can be written to the API to operate on a language-neutral AST.

Persisting this AST is orthogonal to these APIs though, and I'm not at all 
aware how the plugin you describe would be written.  And, it feels like a 
pretty large effort to build a plugin to have eclipse persist ASTs instead 
of text files.  I do think though, that such a plugin would be a client of 
the LDT APIs though, and not part of the LDT itself.

Cheers!

Mike Kaufman
BEA Systems, Inc.