Re: [libsmi] preserving comments

31 May 2002


      Hi Mark,
FYI, MIB Designer (http://www.mibdesigner.com) also supports editing
of comments around object definitions and at the beginning and the
end of a MIB file.
In addition, it supports exporting of MIBs into XML using the SMI DTD
DRAFT Juergen Schoenwaelder proposed. I also missed ASN.1 comments
in the DTD, while understanding and agreeing to the arguments against
supporting ASN.1 comments in higher level representations of SMI definitions.
My idea is to create a XSLT based converter from XML to PDF. I hope
I get some time within the next months to implement it.
Best regards,
Frank
Mark Kaplun wrote:
...
...
From practical point of view, the need for preserving comments may arise
when designing a MIB editor. It is usualy unexceptable for an editor to omit
information which was at the original file.
There is at least one editor (MG-SOFT MIB builder) which lets the MIB
designer to add comments to the MIB before or after a node.
Another practical application is the generation of HTML with syntax coloring
out of MIBs.
I agree that the implementation is probably not a trivial one. What I would
have done, is to start with an easy case (multiple lines of comments between
nodes) while trying to lay out an infrastructure, and handle all other cases
when the need arises (the case where comments are placed between "SYNTAX"
and "INTEGER" will be delayed till infinity ;-).
----- Original Message -----
From: "David T. Perkins" dperkins@dsperkins.com
To: "Mark Kaplun" markk5@bezeqint.net; "Frank Strauss"
strauss@ibr.cs.tu-bs.de
Cc: libsmi@ibr.cs.tu-bs.de
Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2002 12:48 AM
Subject: Re: [libsmi] preserving comments
...
HI Mark,
In SMICng, I have a flag to "capture" comments. Its been in there for
many years. However, the hard part is associating the comments with
the proper item(s). How to do this varies with the style of writing
comments. For example, one of the reasons for capturing comments
is to get the description of enumerated values, such as
   SYNTAX INTEGER {
             a(1),    -- when condition a
             b(2),    -- when condition b
             c(3),    -- when condition c
             d(4)     -- when condition d
             }
As shown above, this is the simple and easy case. Here is another
example:
   SYNTAX INTEGER {
             -- values that can only be written
             a(1),    -- when condition a
             b(2),    -- when condition b
             -- values that can only be read
             c(3),    -- when condition c
             -- values that can be written and read
             d(4)     -- when condition d
             }
And how do you write comments that are over multiple lines? For
example:
   SYNTAX INTEGER {
                      -- when condition a, and blah, blah, blah
             a(1),    -- more about a, blah, blah
         -- or this way
         b(2)    -- when condition b, and blah, blah, blah
                  -- more about b, blah, blah
         }


Many years ago, I made several proposals to extend the syntax of
MIB modules to capture more of text that is associated with
different parts. They were not well received because of the
additional work that would be needed to MIB modules. For example:
   SYNTAX ENUM {
             WRITE-ONLY {
               VALUE a(1)
                 DESCRIPTION "when condition a",
               VALUE b(2)
                 DESCRIPTION "when condition b" }
             READ-ONLY {
               VALUE c(3)
                 DESCRIPTION "when condition c" }
             READ-WRITE {
               VALUE d(4)
                 DESCRIPTION "when condition d" }
             }
And by the way on SMICng, yes, it can save the comments, but doesn't
do anything with them yet (other than print them out, if requested).
At 11:57 PM 5/29/2002 +0200, Mark Kaplun wrote:
...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Frank Strauss" strauss@ibr.cs.tu-bs.de
To: "Mark Kaplun" markk5@bezeqint.net
Cc: libsmi@ibr.cs.tu-bs.de
Sent: Saturday, May 25, 2002 2:48 PM
Subject: Re: [libsmi] preserving comments
[snip part which should be disccused at IETF WG]
...
Mark> The way I see libsmi, it is a generic tool to compile MIB files
Mark> to other formats/langauges, therefor I don't see the point of
Mark> limiting the generated format to "formats which do not contain
Mark> comment information".
I agree. But I think, that's not the point.
This is realy my only point. I will leave the IETF to worry about whether
comments are needed at all, and how to standertise the data in the
descriptions, but while they are here and people are adding comments to
MIB
...
...
files, I think that libsmi should to something with them and not just
ignore
...
...
the text contained in them.
I would gladly contribute some time for adding comment support to libsmi,
but the last time I have done any YACC/LEX coding was sometime at the
prehistoric times. so I will require help at that aspect. If there is
anyone
...
...
who feels it is a worthy cuase and have some YACC experience he can
contact
...
...
me.
Mark.
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Regards,
/david t. perkins
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Re: [libsmi] preserving comments

Frank.Fock＠t-online.de