Save the key names in @name annotations: fix for issue #259

[mihaibudiu]

This fixes issue #259 by preserving the key names for all tables using @name annotations.
This has to be run very early in the front-end, before doing any renaming; otherwise identifier names may change.
This does not really solve the problem, but it just passes the buck to issue #219. We should use these @name annotations when generating the PI.
Unfortunately most reference outputs have changed.

[ChrisDodd]

This code seems excessively verbose to my taste -- it seems like a more concise implementation (without all the converting nulls to empty strings and then testing for empty strings, and extra indirection calls) would be more readable. As is, it looks like there are a bunch of special cases it has to deal with but there is really only one, which is somewhat obscured as a result.

[cc10512]

I am puzzled why we need to hand annotate all these names manually, and essentially repeat the name for the key in a @name annotation. The front end should be able to generate the annotations before any transformation, and then we would need/require hand annotations only for expressions or other corner cases.

[mihaibudiu]

They are not annotated manually; the -first.p4 and -midend.p4 files are actually generated by the compiler exactly as you describe. They contain the program representation at a specific point in the compiler pipeline.

[mihaibudiu]

@ChrisDodd: There's no nullptr cstring, so I didn't know how to do it less verbose. I would appreciate a suggestion.

[cc10512]

Oh, I missed that these were "samples". Thanks for pointing it out.

[ChrisDodd]

cstring() is a "nullptr" cstring -- the explicit cstring::operator bool() method returns false for this (and only this) cstring. It is distinct from cstring("") which is an empty string (and for which operator bool returns true)

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On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 9:28 AM, Mihai Budiu ***@***.***> wrote: @ChrisDodd <https://github.com/ChrisDodd>: There's no nullptr cstring, so I didn't know how to do it less verbose. I would appreciate a suggestion. — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#267 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AD4c8cVLBdutzQWI6bLzWBB7z07NR0R4ks5rXh22gaJpZM4LwYrL> .