Add info on other languages linters, formatters, testing suites etc

Question

Add info on other languages linters, formatters, testing suites etc

Closed this issue 2 months ago · 15 comments

dalonsoa commented 3 months ago

The same way we do when explaining the data structures. Languages to support:

R
C++
Fortran

Answer 1 · 2024-10-09T13:43:40.000Z

A cry for help! Could you advise on linters, formatters and testing suits for:

I'll compile whatever you tell me and put it in the right place in the lessons.

Answer 2 · 2024-10-09T14:21:29.000Z

For formatters, pretty much everybody uses clang-format and most IDEs support it.

clang-tidy is probably the most popular linter (the name always confuses me -- it sounds like it should be a formatter), but I've heard CppCheck is also a good one.

For testing, I've always used GoogleTest, but I think Boost Test and Catch 2 are also v popular.

With compiled languages like C++ and Fortran, it might be worth mentioning that your compiler can give lots of helpful linter-type warnings. For gcc and clang, it's a good idea to pass the -Wall -Wextra -Wpedantic flags to get extra ones.

Answer 3 · 2024-10-09T14:39:02.000Z

What he said 😄

Answer 4 · 2024-10-10T05:00:25.000Z

Let's also add info about package managers, or similar, to include in the page where we talk about conda, poetry, etc.

I actually think I can answer most of the fortran stuff:

Fortran

Package manager: Fortran Package Manager (FPM)
Testing: Test-Drive. See the Fibonacci series example coded in Fortran.
Linting: Via compilers, like gfortran or Intel’s ifort and ifx
Formatting: findent and fprettify
VSCode integration: VSCode Modern Fortran extension, which integrates with the above linters and formatters and the Fortran Language Server fortls.

Answer 5 · 2024-10-10T08:03:09.000Z

For C++ you have vcpkg and Conan. You can also use the system package manager, but it's not a particularly portable approach.

Answer 6 · 2024-10-11T09:45:04.000Z

So, to summarize for C++:

C++

Package manager: Conan and vcpkg
Testing: GoogleTest, Boost Test and Catch 2. See our C++ testing course using Google Test.
Linting: clang-tidy and CppCheck, although compilers can give lots of helpful linter-type warnings. For gcc and clang, it's a good idea to pass the -Wall, -Wextra and -Wpedantic flags to get extra ones.
Formatting: clang-format
VSCode integration: C/C++ VSCode extension, including a full tutorial on how to set VSCode to work with C++., but for Windows it might be easier to just use Visual Studio.

Answer 7 · 2024-10-11T09:55:08.000Z

LGTM. I've generally not bothered trying to make VS Code work for C++ on Windows though, because it's a bit of a pain and you can just use Visual Studio.

It seems like it's possible though: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/cpp/config-msvc#_prerequisites

^^ @jamesturner246

Answer 8 · 2024-10-11T10:18:11.000Z

And for R, pending on @SaranjeetKaur 's seal of approval:

R

Package manager: packrat and checkpoint
Testing: testthat
Linting: lintr, with RStudio integration.
Formatting: styler, with RStudio integration.
RStudio: The linter and formatter both can be integrated with RStudio via RStudio Addins.

Answer 9 · 2024-10-11T10:19:06.000Z

LGTM. I've generally not bothered trying to make VS Code work for C++ on Windows though, because it's a bit of a pain and you can just use Visual Studio.

It seems like it's possible though: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/cpp/config-msvc#_prerequisites

^^ @jamesturner246

Added as a comment.

Answer 10 · 2024-10-11T10:38:45.000Z

For fortran i'd probably mention pfUnit as a more fully featured test framework and there is fortran-linter which I've never tried. Whilst the compiler provided warnings are very useful I don't know of any IDE that actually supports running them to provide inline linting.

Answer 11 · 2024-10-11T10:50:42.000Z

OK about pfUnit and fortran-linter.

About the last comment, in theory VSCode does it: https://fortran-lang.github.io/vscode-fortran-support/#linting

Answer 12 · 2024-10-11T11:07:11.000Z

The fortran-linter does not integrate with VSCode, which is obviously not a problem, but for many people might be a limitation.

Answer 13 · 2024-10-11T11:09:49.000Z

It's funny: fortran linters and formatters are written in python, while python linters and formatters are written in rust. Now, it should be that rust linters and formatters were written in fortran, to close the circle 😆

Answer 14 · 2024-10-11T11:21:00.000Z

About the last comment, in theory VSCode does it: https://fortran-lang.github.io/vscode-fortran-support/#linting

Ah, good to know.

Answer 15 · 2024-10-14T09:38:05.000Z

And for R, pending on @SaranjeetKaur 's seal of approval:

R

Package manager: packrat and checkpoint

Testing: testthat

Linting: lintr, with RStudio integration.

Formatting: styler, with RStudio integration.

RStudio: The linter and formatter both can be integrated with RStudio via RStudio Addins.

These are all good!