Re: Class and interface location

On 19 January 2011 07:46, Adam Richardson <simpleshot@gmail.com> wrote: > On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 2:07 AM, Larry Garfield <larry@garfieldtech.com>wrote: > >> 3) Static analysis.  Instead of reflection, either tokenize or string parse >> all files to determine what classes implement what interfaces and then >> cache >> that information.  We are actually using this method now to locate classes, >> and it works surprisingly well.  Because we never parse code into memory it >> does not ever spike the memory usage.  However, it is impossible to >> determine >> if a class implements a given interface by static analysis unless it >> declare >> so itself with the implements keyword.  If it does so indirectly via >> inheritance, either via the class or via the interface, it would not find >> it. >> That necessitates that any "detectable" classes must explicitly themselves >> declare their interfaces, even if it is redundant to do so.  I don't like >> that >> approach, but it's the first one that strikes me as even viable. >> > > 4) Explicit declaration.  In this approach we detect nothing and rely on the >> plugin developer to do everything.  That is, they must provide somewhere >> (either in code or a configuration file) an index of all classes they >> offer, >> the interfaces they implement, and the file in which they live.  While this >> makes the implementation easy, it is a huge burden on the plugin developer >> and >> I'm quite sure they'll forget to do so or get it wrong on a regular basis. >> > > I'd suggest combining 3 and 4.  Build a tool that performs a static analysis > of a group of files and make it easy for developers to use.  This tool would > generate the explicit declarations your codebase would utilize when > answering such questions as "which classes implement interface foo".  The > file the static analysis tool generates could be easily hand editable, so > developers could tweak it if they see issues (just in case the static > analysis tool has bugs early on), or for small plugins, just quick crank out > a couple lines by hand. > > As long as the static analysis tool builds a composite of class hierarchy > established in all the files (project wide, at least in terms of the > plugin), you wouldn't have to double declare interfaces so they could be > detected. > > Adam > > -- > Nephtali:  A simple, flexible, fast, and security-focused PHP framework > http://nephtaliproject.com > There is a pecl extension called inclued [1] & [2] which could be used I think. It can be used to produce a list of all the relationships between included files, so a one off pass of all the class files (simply include them) and then retrieve the analysis from inclued. You can now build a class dependency tree from that data and cache it. Pretty much exactly what you need. Richard. [1] http://pecl.php.net/package/inclued [2] http://docs.php.net/manual/en/book.inclued.php -- Richard Quadling Twitter : EE : Zend @RQuadling : e-e.com/M_248814.html : bit.ly/9O8vFY