[Sir_Cmpwn]

One problem with OpenGrok et al is scale. I already have a service which is designed to run arbitrary user tasks in an environment configured for their project's needs, so I wanted something that could take advantage of that.

As for parsing C++, since LLVM is written in C++ using it to write a C++ annotator would be a natural fit :) But C and C++ are different langauges and I don't wish to require LLVM to deal with it. LLVM is one of the largest open source projects on the net, and it requires a lot more complexity and compile time to utilize under these circumstances. On the other hand, I came up with a solution which is <1,300 lines of code and won't grow much more as it expands to support a broader set of C extensions.

There does exist prior art, but I deliberately chose to go with the lowest common denomoniator to provide support for a lot of use-cases we can't predict in an environment which gives users more control over its behavior. I think over time it will be pretty easy to plug the prior art into this system, but harder to plug their systems into novel use-cases. The existing solutions are not always the best, but I did put in a lot of research time to validate that assumption.