10.2.2 Class related Symbols

Here’s an example which illustrates some C++ class syntactic symbols:

 1: class Bass
 2:     : public Guitar,
 3:       public Amplifiable
 4: {
 5: public:
 6:     Bass()
 7:         : eString( new BassString( 0.105 )),
 8:           aString( new BassString( 0.085 )),
 9:           dString( new BassString( 0.065 )),
10:           gString( new BassString( 0.045 ))
11:     {
12:         eString.tune( 'E' );
13:         aString.tune( 'A' );
14:         dString.tune( 'D' );
15:         gString.tune( 'G' );
16:     }
17:     friend class Luthier;
18: };

As in the previous example, line 1 has the topmost-intro syntax. Here however, the brace that opens a C++ class definition on line 4 is assigned the class-open syntax. Note that in C++, classes, structs, and unions are essentially equivalent syntactically (and are very similar semantically), so replacing the class keyword in the example above with struct or union would still result in a syntax of class-open for line 4 ³⁷. Similarly, line 18 is assigned class-close syntax.

Note that class-open and class-close syntactic elements have two anchor points. The first is the position of the beginning of the statement, the second is the position of the keyword which defines the construct (e.g. class). These are usually the same position, but differ when the statement starts off with template (C++ Mode) or generic (Java Mode) or similar.

Line 2 introduces the inheritance list for the class so it is assigned the inher-intro syntax, and line 3, which continues the inheritance list is given inher-cont syntax.

Hitting C-c C-s on line 5 shows the following analysis:

((inclass 58) (access-label 58))

The primary syntactic symbol for this line is access-label as this is a label keyword that specifies access protection in C++. However, because this line is also a top-level construct inside a class definition, the analysis actually shows two syntactic symbols. The other syntactic symbol assigned to this line is inclass. Similarly, line 6 is given both inclass and topmost-intro syntax:

((inclass 58) (topmost-intro 60))

Line 7 introduces a C++ member initialization list and as such is given member-init-intro syntax. Note that in this case it is not assigned inclass since this is not considered a top-level construct. Lines 8 through 10 are all assigned member-init-cont since they continue the member initialization list started on line 7.

Line 11’s analysis is a bit more complicated:

((inclass 58) (inline-open))

This line is assigned a syntax of both inline-open and inclass because it opens an in-class C++ inline method definition. This is distinct from, but related to, the C++ notion of an inline function in that its definition occurs inside an enclosing class definition, which in C++ implies that the function should be inlined. However, if the definition of the Bass constructor appeared outside the class definition, the construct would be given the defun-open syntax, even if the keyword inline appeared before the method name, as in:

 1: class Bass
 2:     : public Guitar,
 3:       public Amplifiable
 4: {
 5: public:
 6:     Bass();
 7: };
 8:
 9: inline
10: Bass::Bass()
11:     : eString( new BassString( 0.105 )),
12:       aString( new BassString( 0.085 )),
13:       dString( new BassString( 0.065 )),
14:       gString( new BassString( 0.045 ))
15: {
16:     eString.tune( 'E' );
17:     aString.tune( 'A' );
18:     dString.tune( 'D' );
19:     gString.tune( 'G' );
20: }

Returning to the previous example, line 16 is given inline-close syntax, while line 12 is given defun-block-open syntax, and lines 13 through 15 are all given statement syntax. Line 17 is interesting in that its syntactic analysis list contains three elements:

((inclass 58) (topmost-intro 380) (friend))

The friend and inline-open syntactic symbols are modifiers that do not have anchor positions.

Template definitions introduce yet another syntactic symbol:

 1: ThingManager <int,
 2:    Framework::Callback *,
 3:    Mutex> framework_callbacks;

Here, line 1 is analyzed as a topmost-intro, but lines 2 and 3 are both analyzed as template-args-cont lines.