byte-compile-call-tree

byte-compile-call-tree

[Michael Heerdegen]

Hello,

`byte-compile-call-tree' is a great source of information about a
library created as side effect when compiling.  The information is more
complete and reliable that one could reach easily with other means.


1.  Currently, AFAIK the only mean to get the call tree is to bind
`byte-compile-generate-call-tree' and compile.  The problem is that view
people know that, I think.  It would be better if there was a command
available that one can find.

2.  There's even no mean to get the call tree as an expression without
hacking bytecomp.el.  The tree is destroyed by `display-call-tree' that
prints the output to a buffer.

3.  To the programmer, the current output is not so useful as such.
Programmers have questions like "do I use cl stuff in my lib, or can I
avoid to require cl-lib?".  Or "I want to get rid of using lib-foo in my
package - which of my functions call its function and which?".  It is
quite easy to extract this information from the call tree and sort stuff
by library (in a ~30 lines).


I first wanted to write a library for this kind of stuff, but I wonder
if we should better do this in Emacs.


Regards,

Michael.

Re: byte-compile-call-tree

[Stefan Monnier]

> 1.  Currently, AFAIK the only mean to get the call tree is to bind
> `byte-compile-generate-call-tree' and compile.  The problem is that view
> people know that, I think.  It would be better if there was a command
> available that one can find.

Yes, it's a feature that hasn't gotten much love, if any.
We'd welcome patches which provide:
- a function that returns a call tree.
- a command on top of that which displays the call-tree.


        Stefan

Re: byte-compile-call-tree

[Michael Heerdegen]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

> - a command on top of that which displays the call-tree.

Seems like `display-call-tree' is/was intended for that.  It is
interactive and even noted under "Entry points:" in the header.  But it
doesn't work as a command, with neither setting of
`byte-compile-generate-call-tree'.

Re: byte-compile-call-tree

[Michael Heerdegen]

Michael Heerdegen <michael_heerdegen@web.de> writes:

> Seems like `display-call-tree' is/was intended for that.  It is
> interactive and even noted under "Entry points:" in the header.  But it
> doesn't work as a command, with neither setting of
> `byte-compile-generate-call-tree'.

Oops, I'm sorry, that was nonsense.  `display-call-tree' works as
expected, and `byte-compile-call-tree' is never destroyed.  There was
just an error in my own setup.

So, please forget (1) and (2); but (3) would still be useful (and isn't
nonsense, I think).  We could provide a command
`display-call-tree-by-lib' for that purpose.


Michael.

Re: byte-compile-call-tree

[Michael Heerdegen]

Michael Heerdegen <michael_heerdegen@web.de> writes:

> We could provide a command `display-call-tree-by-lib' for that
> purpose.

This is probably not the right way to get a complete list of stuff from
foreign libraries.  The call tree doesn't include macros used, as well
as interactive functions.

Michael.