In the last few years, Clang has opened up new possibilities in C++ tooling for the masses. Tools such as clang-tidy and clazy offer ready-to-use source-to-source transformations. Available transformations can be used to modernize (use newer C++ language features), improve readability (remove redundant constructs), or improve adherence to the C++ Core Guidelines.
However, when special needs arise, maintainers of large codebases need to learn some of the Clang APIs to create their own porting aids. The Clang APIs necessarily form a more-exact picture of the structure of C++ code than most developers keep in their heads, and bridging the conceptual gap can be a daunting task.
This talk will show tools and features which make this task easier for developers, ranging from
* Improvements to the clang-query interpreter * Improvements to the AST Matcher API * Information essential to creating clang-tidy-checks * Debugging and profiling of AST Matchers * Advanced tooling
These features are in various stages along the way to being upstreamed to Clang. They enable new possibilities for large-scale refactoring in a reasonable timeframe by solving problems of API discovery, guiding users in creating working refactorings.
