Thread overview
Version reading material
Feb 25, 2005
jicman
Feb 25, 2005
Derek Parnell
Feb 25, 2005
jicman
Feb 25, 2005
Lionello Lunesu
Feb 25, 2005
Derek
February 25, 2005
Greetings, folks!

I've read the versioning subject found on the D html pages, but I need to understand versioning.  Any web sites out there?

thanks.

josé


February 25, 2005
On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 03:50:36 +0000 (UTC), jicman wrote:

> Greetings, folks!
> 
> I've read the versioning subject found on the D html pages, but I need to understand versioning.  Any web sites out there?

Versioning is very staight forward in D.

For example:

 version(XX)
 {
     // code here gets compiled if version XX is active
 }

 version(YY)
 {
     // code here gets compiled if version YY is active
     version(XX) {
          // Both YY and XX must be active for this stuff to compile.
     }
}

You can set the versions by the command line -version= switch.

Some versions are built-in and are already active.

You can also set versions during the compile process from within your code ...

   // Set Posix version active if either linux or darwin is active.
   version(linux) version=Posix;
   version(darwin) version=Posix;


You can also set version *levels*. This means that the code will only compile if the current version level is greater than or equal to the one specified in the code.

   version(2)
   {
      // code here only gets compiled if the version has been
      // set to 0, 1, or 2.
   }

To get this effect into action, invoke dmd thus ...

   dmd myapp -version=2


It can also be used to 'comment out' code ...

   version(none) {
     // this code is now commented out
   }

This is useful 'cos it is easy to nest versions to make commenting out code easier.

   version(none){
         FuncA();
         version(none) {
                   FuncB();
         }
    }


-- 
Derek
Melbourne, Australia
25/02/2005 2:53:28 PM
February 25, 2005
In article <12kzqpm2n6xm3.15ny3m5pkhnsk.dlg@40tude.net>, Derek Parnell says...
>
>On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 03:50:36 +0000 (UTC), jicman wrote:
>
>> Greetings, folks!
>> 
>> I've read the versioning subject found on the D html pages, but I need to understand versioning.  Any web sites out there?
>
>Versioning is very staight forward in D.
>
>For example:
>
> version(XX)
> {
>     // code here gets compiled if version XX is active
> }
>
> version(YY)
> {
>     // code here gets compiled if version YY is active
>     version(XX) {
>          // Both YY and XX must be active for this stuff to compile.
>     }
>}
>
>You can set the versions by the command line -version= switch.
>
>Some versions are built-in and are already active.
>
>You can also set versions during the compile process from within your code ...
>
>   // Set Posix version active if either linux or darwin is active.
>   version(linux) version=Posix;
>   version(darwin) version=Posix;
>
>
>You can also set version *levels*. This means that the code will only compile if the current version level is greater than or equal to the one specified in the code.
>
>   version(2)
>   {
>      // code here only gets compiled if the version has been
>      // set to 0, 1, or 2.
>   }
>
>To get this effect into action, invoke dmd thus ...
>
>   dmd myapp -version=2
>
>
>It can also be used to 'comment out' code ...
>
>   version(none) {
>     // this code is now commented out
>   }
>
>This is useful 'cos it is easy to nest versions to make commenting out code easier.
>
>   version(none){
>         FuncA();
>         version(none) {
>                   FuncB();
>         }
>    }
>
>
>-- 
>Derek
>Melbourne, Australia
>25/02/2005 2:53:28 PM

thank you, Derek.


February 25, 2005
Hi..

> You can also set version *levels*. This means that the code will only compile if the current version level is greater than or equal to the one specified in the code.
>
>   version(2)
>   {
>      // code here only gets compiled if the version has been
>      // set to 0, 1, or 2.
>   }

This felt a bit funny to me when I read it: it means that if I want to compile "version 1" it'll include stuff from "version(2){...}", so I checked the doc:

 version(n) { }	// add in version code if version level is >= n

So version(1) gets included for version>=1, which makes more sense :-)

Lionello.


February 25, 2005
On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 10:48:53 +0200, Lionello Lunesu wrote:

> Hi..
> 
>> You can also set version *levels*. This means that the code will only compile if the current version level is greater than or equal to the one specified in the code.
>>
>>   version(2)
>>   {
>>      // code here only gets compiled if the version has been
>>      // set to 0, 1, or 2.
>>   }
> 
> This felt a bit funny to me when I read it: it means that if I want to compile "version 1" it'll include stuff from "version(2){...}", so I checked the doc:
> 
>  version(n) { }	// add in version code if version level is >= n
> 
> So version(1) gets included for version>=1, which makes more sense :-)
> 

Duh! Of course. I don't know what I was thinking ;-)

-- 
Derek
Melbourne, Australia
February 25, 2005
Derek Parnell wrote:

>>I've read the versioning subject found on the D html pages, but I need to
>>understand versioning.  Any web sites out there?
> 
> Versioning is very staight forward in D.

That might be, but it has a number of outstanding issues...

> For example:
> 
>  version(XX)
>  {
>      // code here gets compiled if version XX is active
>  }

If you want to do stuff if XX is *not* set,
you need to do: version(XX) {} else { ... }

There's a patch for version(!XX), but it has
not been accepted, nor commented, just yet ?

>  version(YY)
>  {
>      // code here gets compiled if version YY is active
>      version(XX) {
>           // Both YY and XX must be active for this stuff to compile.
>      }
> }

If you need to do stuff if !(XX and YY), things get more interesting.
(a common example here being version(D_InlineAsm) and version(X86)...)

The most straightforward method is to set up a new temp version:
version(D_InlineAsm) { version(X86) { version = UseX86Asm; } }

> You can set the versions by the command line -version= switch.
> 
> Some versions are built-in and are already active.
> 
> You can also set versions during the compile process from within your code
> ...

An expanded list is at: (the original page only shows DMD versions)
http://www.prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?DocComments/Version

Note the important casing differences here: "Windows" vs. "linux"

>    // Set Posix version active if either linux or darwin is active.
>    version(linux) version=Posix;
>    version(darwin) version=Posix;

Sigh, this particular example is just reminding of another sad story...

And it should probably be:
>    version(linux) version=Posix;
>    version(darwin) version=Posix;
>    version(freebsd) version=Posix;
>    version(cygwin) version=Posix;
>    version(solaris) version=Posix;

Possibly other systems, yet to come ? (but this is a different topic)

> You can also set version *levels*. This means that the code will only
> compile if the current version level is greater than or equal to the one
> specified in the code.
> 
>    version(2)
>    {
>       // code here only gets compiled if the version has been
>       // set to 0, 1, or 2.
>    }
> 
> To get this effect into action, invoke dmd thus ...
> 
>    dmd myapp -version=2
> 

Sadly one can't have "versions of versions", which
means it can't be used like #if VERSION > 42 could.

But you can have one global version number, and one
debug version number: "debug(3)" (debug level >= 3)

> It can also be used to 'comment out' code ...
> 
>    version(none) {
>      // this code is now commented out    }
> 
> This is useful 'cos it is easy to nest versions to make commenting out code
> easier.

Usually one uses /+ +/ for commenting out code,
but version(none) and version(all) are the matches
for #if 0 and #if 1, as the C preprocessor uses...

     ****

Conditional compilation in general also has some non-technical
maintenance issues, and some languages like Java do not support
it for that reason - like other stuff that "might be dangerous",
like pointers, gotos, native code, and all other adult C topics. ;-)

For instance,
"assert" statements in Java are always left in and triggered at runtime:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/guide/lang/assert.html#design-faq-enable-disable
Similarly, debug versions are usually a global boolean: "if (debug) { }"
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/second_edition/html/statements.doc.html#236365

As usual, D is more towards the C end of doing things. Or in the middle?

--anders