Add more commentary about ExtFmt

2 files changed, 37 insertions, 15 deletions

diff --git a/src/comp/front/extfmt.rs b/src/comp/front/extfmt.rs
index bb9f88324b0..54174dd3d1b 100644
--- a/src/comp/front/extfmt.rs
+++ b/src/comp/front/extfmt.rs
@@ -1,16 +1,7 @@
-/* The 'fmt' extension is modeled on the posix printf system.
- *
- * A posix conversion ostensibly looks like this:
- *
- * %[parameter][flags][width][.precision][length]type
- *
- * Given the different numeric type bestiary we have, we omit the 'length'
- * parameter and support slightly different conversions for 'type':
- *
- * %[parameter][flags][width][.precision]type
- *
- * we also only support translating-to-rust a tiny subset of the possible
- * combinations at the moment.
+/*
+ * The compiler code necessary to support the #fmt extension.  Eventually this
+ * should all get sucked into either the standard library ExtFmt module or the
+ * compiler syntax extension plugin interface.
  */
 
 import util.common;
@@ -53,7 +44,7 @@ import std.ExtFmt.CT.parse_fmt_string;
 
 export expand_syntax_ext;
 
-// TODO: Need to thread parser through here to handle errors correctly
+// FIXME: Need to thread parser through here to handle errors correctly
 fn expand_syntax_ext(vec[@ast.expr] args,
                      option.t[@ast.expr] body) -> @ast.expr {
 
@@ -148,6 +139,8 @@ fn pieces_to_expr(vec[piece] pieces, vec[@ast.expr] args) -> @ast.expr {
     }
 
     fn make_path_vec(str ident) -> vec[str] {
+        // FIXME: #fmt can't currently be used from within std
+        // because we're explicitly referencing the 'std' crate here
         ret vec("std", "ExtFmt", "RT", ident);
     }
 
diff --git a/src/lib/ExtFmt.rs b/src/lib/ExtFmt.rs
index 229a0c5d517..da32568af52 100644
--- a/src/lib/ExtFmt.rs
+++ b/src/lib/ExtFmt.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,32 @@
+/* The 'fmt' extension is modeled on the posix printf system.
+ *
+ * A posix conversion ostensibly looks like this:
+ *
+ * %[parameter][flags][width][.precision][length]type
+ *
+ * Given the different numeric type bestiary we have, we omit the 'length'
+ * parameter and support slightly different conversions for 'type':
+ *
+ * %[parameter][flags][width][.precision]type
+ *
+ * we also only support translating-to-rust a tiny subset of the possible
+ * combinations at the moment.
+ */
+
 import option.none;
 import option.some;
 
+/*
+ * We have a CT (compile-time) module that parses format strings into a
+ * sequence of conversions. From those conversions AST fragments are built
+ * that call into properly-typed functions in the RT (run-time) module.  Each
+ * of those run-time conversion functions accepts another conversion
+ * description that specifies how to format its output.
+ *
+ * The building of the AST is currently done in a module inside the compiler,
+ * but should migrate over here as the plugin interface is defined.
+ */
+
 // Functions used by the fmt extension at compile time
 mod CT {
     tag signedness {
@@ -262,7 +288,10 @@ mod CT {
     }
 }
 
-// Functions used by the fmt extension at runtime
+// Functions used by the fmt extension at runtime. For now there are a lot of
+// decisions made a runtime. If it proves worthwhile then some of these
+// conditions can be evaluated at compile-time. For now though it's cleaner to
+// implement it this way, I think.
 mod RT {
 
     tag ty {