[General] Working on code generator ... was: Re: [DISCUSS] Which template engine to use for the code-generator

[Christofer Dutz <ch...@c-ware.de>]

Hi all,

so after having a first generic generator thingy working, I am now working on building helpers and templates for code generation.

For now I would like to write it that it works with the schemas I already created and to fail miserably if something is not as expected. 
It's not planned on being used as a general purpose tool, so I guess this is ok ... if we encounter problems when implementing other protocols I would then opt for securing the parts that cause errors.
Now building some bullet-proof solution is probably a waste of time.

What do you think?

Chris


Am 28.02.19, 15:37 schrieb "Christofer Dutz" <ch...@c-ware.de>:

    Hi all,
    
    so I just pushed a first very raw version of the plugin.
    
    The configuration currently looks like this:
    
          <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.plc4x.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>plc4x-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
              <package-name>org.apache.plc4x.test</package-name>
              <dfdl-schema>${pom.basedir}/src/main/resources/protocol.dfdl.xsd</dfdl-schema>
              <templates>
                <tempate>${pom.basedir}/src/main/resources/template.ftlh</tempate>
              </templates>
            </configuration>
          </plugin>
    
    The above config references both templates and dfdl schema locally, but it is my intention to support classpath paths in there too.
    The package name is needed as the templates are language dependent and not protocol dependent and the protocols don't know about packages.
    In the end, a user would add a "runtime" dependency to the module for a "template" project and a "protocol" module.
    
    For example we would have:
    - JavaTemplates 
    - CppTemplates
    - PythonTemplates
    - CsTemplates
    
    And protocol modules for every supported protocol:
    
    - S7Protocol
    - ADSProtocol
    - ModbusProtocol
    - EtherNetIPProtocol
    
    And with this we could generate:
    
    - plc4j-s7-driver (package: "org.apache.plc4x.java.s7", JavaTemplates, S7Protocol)
    - plc4j-modbus-driver (package: "org.apache.plc4x.java.modbus", JavaTemplates, S7Protocol)
    - plc4cpp-s7-driver (package: "org.apache.plc4x.cpp.s7", CppTemplates, S7Protocol)
    ...
    I guess you get the point ...
    
    Right now the plugin can accept a number of templates and a dfdl schema file. The plugin parses this and for every root complexType it executes each of the templates.
    If the template wants to output something, the first line of the generated output will contain the file-name and directory structure for the output. 
    After that comes the real content of the file.
    
    Still have to work on the loading of resources from the classpath as this requires adding more modules (the template modules) so I'm currently concentrating on how to generate code ... 
    Here I'll probably work on some helpers for common things I come across during my template writing. 
    
    Just wanted to keep you guys updated ... 
    
    Chris
    
    
    
    Am 28.02.19, 10:15 schrieb "Julian Feinauer" <j....@pragmaticminds.de>:
    
        Hi Chris,
        
        
        I used and like both.
        
        But I have the impression that Freemarker is a bit more widespread for code generation (is e.g. used in Apache Drill) in contrast to velcotiy which is often used for websites (my impressions).
        
        So I agree and also prefer freemarker for us.
        
        
        Julian
        
        
        ________________________________
        Von: Christofer Dutz <ch...@c-ware.de>
        Gesendet: Donnerstag, 28. Februar 2019 09:11:26
        An: dev@plc4x.apache.org
        Betreff: [DISCUSS] Which template engine to use for the code-generator
        
        Hi all,
        
        so yesterday I did the first commit for a new maven plugin (And yes it’s intentionally not part of the main build).
        So today I will start with the code generation part … the thing is that we will be using a templating system to define the templates for a given output format.
        Right now we could coose:
        
          *   Apache Velocity (https://velocity.apache.org/)
          *   Apache Freemarker (https://freemarker.apache.org/)
        
        Usually the choice for an Apache project would have been Velocity as this was the Apache project, but as recently Freemarker also is an Apache project, I would prefer the later.
        In my day job I have had the need to use Tempating engines multiple times and whenever I used Freemarker, things were a lot simpler.
        
        So if there are now objections, I would start using Freemarker.
        
        Chris