The project I'm currently working on is becoming quite large, and is being compiled to a few different lib files. This is useful, so the application and tools only have to link to the libraries they need.

We use DMD's interface generation option to create the header files, which is an awesome feature, but the problem is that it doesn't output interface files in the package hierarchy. For example, if there are two modules 'basepackage/package1/module1.d' and 'basepackage/package2/module2.d', the interfaces end up as 'headers/module1.di' and 'headers/module2.di'.

Now, when we add the 'headers' directory to the include path, the compiler won't be able to find module1 when importing 'basepackage/package1/module1'. It works when I simply import 'module1', which surprises me since the interface retains the original module declaration.

Anyway, DMD not outputting interfaces in the package hierarchy makes the feature pretty much useless for large projects. Is there a reason for this behavior, or was this simply never considered? I'm willing to try and add a new switch to the compiler so it creates the hierarchy, but I've never touched DMD's source so I'm not sure if I'm the right person for the job.

On 2/29/12 9:25 AM, Rene Zwanenburg wrote:
> The project I'm currently working on is becoming quite large, and is
> being compiled to a few different lib files. This is useful, so the
> application and tools only have to link to the libraries they need.
>
> We use DMD's interface generation option to create the header files,
> which is an awesome feature, but the problem is that it doesn't output
> interface files in the package hierarchy. For example, if there are two
> modules 'basepackage/package1/module1.d' and
> 'basepackage/package2/module2.d', the interfaces end up as
> 'headers/module1.di' and 'headers/module2.di'.
>
> Now, when we add the 'headers' directory to the include path, the
> compiler won't be able to find module1 when importing
> 'basepackage/package1/module1'. It works when I simply import 'module1',
> which surprises me since the interface retains the original module
> declaration.
>
> Anyway, DMD not outputting interfaces in the package hierarchy makes the
> feature pretty much useless for large projects. Is there a reason for
> this behavior, or was this simply never considered? I'm willing to try
> and add a new switch to the compiler so it creates the hierarchy, but
> I've never touched DMD's source so I'm not sure if I'm the right person
> for the job.

I'd put this bug together with the recently-discussed bug that the object file names clash when coming from different packages, in the same bin - the "growing pains" bin.

A lot of stuff has been thought for large modular projects in D, but until recently that boundary hasn't been pushed strongly enough. Therefore, a lot of small logistical details like this one were not paid attention to.

Rene, could you please submit this bug to our bugzilla with importance "critical"? I think this is an important category of bugs because it stymies progress for D's most invested users.


Thanks,

Andrei

Done:
http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=7610

On Wednesday, 29 February 2012 at 15:35:23 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> On 2/29/12 9:25 AM, Rene Zwanenburg wrote:
>> The project I'm currently working on is becoming quite large, and is
>> being compiled to a few different lib files. This is useful, so the
>> application and tools only have to link to the libraries they need.
>>
>> We use DMD's interface generation option to create the header files,
>> which is an awesome feature, but the problem is that it doesn't output
>> interface files in the package hierarchy. For example, if there are two
>> modules 'basepackage/package1/module1.d' and
>> 'basepackage/package2/module2.d', the interfaces end up as
>> 'headers/module1.di' and 'headers/module2.di'.
>>
>> Now, when we add the 'headers' directory to the include path, the
>> compiler won't be able to find module1 when importing
>> 'basepackage/package1/module1'. It works when I simply import 'module1',
>> which surprises me since the interface retains the original module
>> declaration.
>>
>> Anyway, DMD not outputting interfaces in the package hierarchy makes the
>> feature pretty much useless for large projects. Is there a reason for
>> this behavior, or was this simply never considered? I'm willing to try
>> and add a new switch to the compiler so it creates the hierarchy, but
>> I've never touched DMD's source so I'm not sure if I'm the right person
>> for the job.
>
> I'd put this bug together with the recently-discussed bug that the object file names clash when coming from different packages, in the same bin - the "growing pains" bin.
>
> A lot of stuff has been thought for large modular projects in D, but until recently that boundary hasn't been pushed strongly enough. Therefore, a lot of small logistical details like this one were not paid attention to.
>
> Rene, could you please submit this bug to our bugzilla with importance "critical"? I think this is an important category of bugs because it stymies progress for D's most invested users.
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Andrei

On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:25:32 +0100, Rene Zwanenburg <renezwanenburg@gmail.com> wrote:

> The project I'm currently working on is becoming quite large, and is being compiled to a few different lib files. This is useful, so the application and tools only have to link to the libraries they need.
>
> We use DMD's interface generation option to create the header files, which is an awesome feature, but the problem is that it doesn't output interface files in the package hierarchy. For example, if there are two modules 'basepackage/package1/module1.d' and 'basepackage/package2/module2.d', the interfaces end up as 'headers/module1.di' and 'headers/module2.di'.
>
dmd -o- -op -Hdheaders basepkg/pkg1/mod1.d basepkg/pkg2/mod2.d

On Wednesday, 29 February 2012 at 18:10:41 UTC, Martin Nowak wrote:
> On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:25:32 +0100, Rene Zwanenburg <renezwanenburg@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> The project I'm currently working on is becoming quite large, and is being compiled to a few different lib files. This is useful, so the application and tools only have to link to the libraries they need.
>>
>> We use DMD's interface generation option to create the header files, which is an awesome feature, but the problem is that it doesn't output interface files in the package hierarchy. For example, if there are two modules 'basepackage/package1/module1.d' and 'basepackage/package2/module2.d', the interfaces end up as 'headers/module1.di' and 'headers/module2.di'.
>>
> dmd -o- -op -Hdheaders basepkg/pkg1/mod1.d basepkg/pkg2/mod2.d

Thanks, I just found that out while browsing DMD's source. The documentation on http://dlang.org/dmd-windows.html doesn't mention it though, says it only works for object files.

On 2/29/12 12:26 PM, Rene Zwanenburg wrote:
> On Wednesday, 29 February 2012 at 18:10:41 UTC, Martin Nowak wrote:
>> On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:25:32 +0100, Rene Zwanenburg
>> <renezwanenburg@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> The project I'm currently working on is becoming quite large, and is
>>> being compiled to a few different lib files. This is useful, so the
>>> application and tools only have to link to the libraries they need.
>>>
>>> We use DMD's interface generation option to create the header files,
>>> which is an awesome feature, but the problem is that it doesn't
>>> output interface files in the package hierarchy. For example, if
>>> there are two modules 'basepackage/package1/module1.d' and
>>> 'basepackage/package2/module2.d', the interfaces end up as
>>> 'headers/module1.di' and 'headers/module2.di'.
>>>
>> dmd -o- -op -Hdheaders basepkg/pkg1/mod1.d basepkg/pkg2/mod2.d
>
> Thanks, I just found that out while browsing DMD's source. The
> documentation on http://dlang.org/dmd-windows.html doesn't mention it
> though, says it only works for object files.

Does that downgrade the bug report to a documentation bug?

Andrei

On Wednesday, 29 February 2012 at 23:55:05 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> On 2/29/12 12:26 PM, Rene Zwanenburg wrote:
>> On Wednesday, 29 February 2012 at 18:10:41 UTC, Martin Nowak wrote:
>>> On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:25:32 +0100, Rene Zwanenburg
>>> <renezwanenburg@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> The project I'm currently working on is becoming quite large, and is
>>>> being compiled to a few different lib files. This is useful, so the
>>>> application and tools only have to link to the libraries they need.
>>>>
>>>> We use DMD's interface generation option to create the header files,
>>>> which is an awesome feature, but the problem is that it doesn't
>>>> output interface files in the package hierarchy. For example, if
>>>> there are two modules 'basepackage/package1/module1.d' and
>>>> 'basepackage/package2/module2.d', the interfaces end up as
>>>> 'headers/module1.di' and 'headers/module2.di'.
>>>>
>>> dmd -o- -op -Hdheaders basepkg/pkg1/mod1.d basepkg/pkg2/mod2.d
>>
>> Thanks, I just found that out while browsing DMD's source. The
>> documentation on http://dlang.org/dmd-windows.html doesn't mention it
>> though, says it only works for object files.
>
> Does that downgrade the bug report to a documentation bug?
>
> Andrei

I've added a patch to the bug report which fixes the documentation.