Disclaimer

This tool is not fully tested and usability is very bad!

Currently works for my needs but if you find any bugs or something missing, please do send a PR.

Description

recpp (re-ci-pe) lets you cook your cpp!

recpp either provides interactive recipes for some dishes or simple list of ingredients.

The following dishes can be cooked in recpp kitchen:

• design: help you cook your design by suggesting patterns,
• class: help you cook your class prototypes by generating annotated pseudo-code,
• function: help you cook your function prototypes by generating annotated pseudo-code,
• lambda: help you cook your lambda prototypes by generating annotated pseudo-code,
• ds: help you select your data structures,
• algo: help you select your algorithms,
• impl: provide you a list of tips for your core implementation.

Requirements

• python >= 3.6
• jinja2

python -m pip install jinja2

Use cases

There are two main modes of execution:

• list mode (-l -a): just display a list of tips,
• recipe mode (default): interactive mode that output suggestions or pseudo-code.

Annotated pseudo-code generation

Annotated pseudo-code is some standard C++ code mixed with annotations.

ℹ️ Most of the code generating recipes requires user inputs

ℹ️ Use -a for interative annotations, -o for in-file code generation

• Generating a class with annotations in the generated pseudo-code

python recpp.py -d class

• Generating a function with annotations displayed step-by-step on console

python recpp.py -d function -a

• Generating a lambda in a file

python recpp.py -d lambda -o /tmp/recpp

• Generating annotated code snippets for the core implementation

python recpp.py -d impl -a

Decision making

• Suggesting some patterns/idioms to a design problem

python recpp.py -d design -a

• Suggesting a standard data structure or algorithm

python recpp.py -d ds -a
python recpp.py -d algo -a

Aggregating tips

⚠️ For tips listing, -a is mandatory

• List all tips needed to build a class

python recpp.py -d class -l -a

• List performance and reliability tips to build a function

python recpp.py -d function -l -a -k PERF,REL

• List concurrency tips for your core implementation

python recpp.py -d impl -l -a -k CON

• List all performance tips

python recpp.py -d all -l -a -k PERF

Annotations

An annotation has the following format:

type,... [reference]: message

with:

• type,...: list of type tokens use to classify the annotation
• reference: source of the annotation
• message: short descriptive message

recpp provides different modes for annotations:

• recipe annotations displayed before each recipe step (-a option)
• recipe annotations displayed as a block on top of the recipe dish (either a suggestion or some generated pseudo-code)
• code annotations interleaved with pseudo-code (only for recipes that generate some pseudo-code)

The following type tokens are used and can be listed with the -k option is list mode:

• REF: reference to another recipe,
• REL: reliability,
• PERF: performance (scalibiltiy, efficiency, in time/size, at compile-time/runtime),
• MAINT: maintainability (understandability, modifiability...),
• USA: usability,
• TEST: testability,
• COMP: compatibility,
• EXT: extensibility,
• INTEROP: interopability,
• SEC: security,
• CORRECT: correctness,
• PORT: portability,
• CON: concurrency.

In addition, the following tokens can be found only in code annotations:

• NOTE: note in code,
• TIPS: implementation tips in code

Here are the references you can find in annotations:

• recpp.internal: sources that could unfortunatly not be tracked i.e. notes from cppcon, blog articles, some lost books etc.
• cppcore.*: CPP Core guidelines.
• CERT.*: SEI CERT C++ Coding Standard
• cppref: cppreference.com
• CCS: C++ Coding Standards, Sutter, Alexandrescu.
• ECPP: Effective C++, Meyers
• EMCPP: Effective Modern C++, Meyers
• CPPTPL: C++ Templates, The Complete Guide, 2nd edition, Vandevoorde, Josuttis, Gregor
• SECCPP: Secure Coding in C and C++, Seacord

Extensions

A feature-limited extension for vscode is available.

Read the extension README in vscodeext directory.

Todo

• Update smart pointer case according to this so question
• Add recommendations for testing (no excessive setup, single test per scenario, no chatty tests, excessive mock/fakes)
• Add output examples in README