[Bug translator/12586] New: better treatment for confusing $var . field vs. $var->field syntax

[fche at redhat dot com]

http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=12586

           Summary: better treatment for confusing  $var . field  vs.
                    $var->field  syntax
           Product: systemtap
           Version: unspecified
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: translator
        AssignedTo: systemtap@sourceware.org
        ReportedBy: fche@redhat.com


C programmers are sometimes confused by systemtap's use of -> for all
context-variable dereferencing, including for struct members.  We should
try to improve this.  Some possibilities, all to be conditional on
--compatible >= 1.5:

1) make the parser accept  $var . foo  and turn it into $var->foo
   ... but if $var is actually a string and foo is another string,
   this would break the script.  The parser doesn't have enough
   information to decide.

2) make the parser warn for  $var . foo
   ... we only have a few test cases for constructs like this, but it
   can legitimately occur in  $$parms . something

3) make the elaborator (pass-2) look for $var . foo; if the former fails
   to resolve, try rewriting to $var->foo and resolve again.

4) something like 3), but only for non-string-valued $var

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