Re: ObjectHandler, QuantLibAddin, and QuEPs

[Jody Goldberg <jody gnome org>]

On Wed, Oct 27, 2004 at 06:18:49PM +0200, Ferdinando Ametrano wrote:
> Are you > interested in joining the QuantLib-dev mailing list?
I'm definitely already on some of the quantlib lists, possibly not
that one please add me.

> Do you plan to personally contribute to the Gnumeric version of
> the QuantLibAddin?
yes.  Gnumeric already has a significant set of financial analytics,
and I'd like to see that expanded to use quantlib.
 
> > What do you think about the autogeneration of code described under
> > "Notes"?  Jody and I agree that autogeneration is the way forward, if
> > you agree I'll do a design doc for that.
> I do agree that autogeneration is the way forward. I'm not sure 
> Python+config_file is the best approach, but I'm not an expert. What about 
> IDL definition and IDL compilers?

IDL is a non-starter.  It is nowhere near reach enough to supply the
amount of documentation and detail to generate the code I'd like to
see.  A config_file and some sort of script, possibly in python
seems like a reasonable approach.  I've seen it used successfully in
things like pygtk and gtk#.  By defining the api using a format we
control it's possible to get all the relevent information.
Something as simple as an xml based format would be fine.  The goal
is to provide things like
    - name
    - short func description
    - per argument name, description, type
    - Return type
    - long func description (algorithm, model, possible a url to
      more docs)
    - implementation status
    - testing status
    - version info (eg first created in QL v?)
    - Related functions
    - Possibly a ChangeLog ?
    - Translations ?
    - Keywords/Categories to classify function
    - Samples/Examples
    - Related functions

With that type of information a spreadsheet can provide a decent
interface for selecting a routine.  Gnumeric has on the order of
500+ functions right now.  That's everything in north american MS
Excel and 150 or extra.  Navigating through that is cumbersome.