go/oracle/TODO

ORACLE TODO
===========

General
=======

Refactor control flow so that each mode has a "one-shot setup" function.

Use a fault-tolerant parser that can recover from bad parses.

Save unsaved editor buffers into an archive and provide that to the
tools, which should act as if they were saved.

Fix: make the guessImportPath hack work with external _test.go files too.

Allow the analysis scope to include multiple test packages at once.

Include complete pos/end information Serial output.
  But beware that sometimes a single token (e.g. +) is more helpful
  than the pos/end of the containing expression (e.g. x \n + \n y).

Specific queries
================

callers, callees

  Use a type-based (e.g. RTA) callgraph when a callers/callees query is
  outside the analysis scope.

implements

   Make it require that the selection is a type, and show only the
   implements relation as it applies to that type.

definition, referrers

  Use the parser's resolver information to answer the query
  for local names.  Only run the type checker if that fails.
  (NB: gri's new parser won't do any resolution.)

  referrers: Show the text of the matching line of code, like grep.

  definition: Make it work with qualified identifiers (SelectorExpr) too.

  references: Make it work on things that are implicit idents, like
  import specs, perhaps?

what

  Report def/ref info if available.
  Editors could use it to highlight all idents of the same local var.

  Fix: support it in (*Oracle).Query (long-running tools).

  More tests.

pointsto

  When invoked on a function Ident, we get an error.

  When invoked on a named return parameter, we get an error.

describe

  When invoked on a var, we want to see the type and its methods.

  Split "show type" and "describe syntax" into separate commands?

peers

  Permit querying from a makechan, close(), for...range, or reflective op.

  Report aliasing reflect.{Send,Recv,Close} and close() operations.

New queries

"updaters": show all statements that may update the selected lvalue
  (local, global, field, etc).

"creators": show all places where an object of type T is created
  (&T{}, var t T, new(T), new(struct{array [3]T}), etc.
  (Useful for datatypes whose zero value is not safe)


Editor-specific
===============

Add support for "what" to .el; clean up.

Emacs: use JSON to get the raw information from the oracle.  Don't
 open an editor buffer for simpler queries, just jump to the result
 and/or display it in the modeline.

Emacs: go-root-and-paths depends on the current buffer, so be sure to
   call it from within the source file, not the *go-oracle* buffer:
   the user may have switched workspaces and the oracle should run in
   the new one.

Support other editors: vim, Eclipse, Sublime, etc.