go/analysis/doc: add doc about suggested_fixes.
Change-Id: Ie0c2ef42665312e679feb34202588a9dd78bbfd2
Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/tools/+/183262
Run-TryBot: Michael Matloob <matloob@golang.org>
TryBot-Result: Gobot Gobot <gobot@golang.org>
Reviewed-by: Ian Cottrell <iancottrell@google.com>
diff --git a/go/analysis/doc/suggested_fixes.md b/go/analysis/doc/suggested_fixes.md
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+# Suggested Fixes in the Analysis Framework
+
+## The Purpose of Suggested Fixes
+
+The analysis framework is planned to add a facility to output
+suggested fixes. Suggested fixes in the analysis framework
+are meant to address two common use cases. The first is the
+natural use case of allowing the user to quickly fix errors or issues
+pointed out by analyzers through their editor or analysis tool.
+An editor, when showing a diagnostic for an issue, can propose
+code to fix that issue. Users can accept the proposal and have
+the editor apply the fix for them. The second case is to allow
+for defining refactorings. An analyzer meant to perform a
+refactoring can produce suggested fixes equivalent to the diff
+of the refactoring. Then, an analysis driver meant to apply
+refactorings can automatically apply all the diffs that
+are produced by the analysis as suggested fixes.
+
+## Proposed Suggested Fix API
+
+Suggested fixes will be defined using the following structs:
+
+```go
+// A SuggestedFix is a code change associated with a Diagnostic that a user can choose
+// to apply to their code. Usually the SuggestedFix is meant to fix the issue flagged
+// by the diagnostic.
+type SuggestedFix struct {
+ // A description for this suggested fix to be shown to a user deciding
+ // whether to accept it.
+ Message string
+ TextEdits []TextEdit
+}
+
+// A TextEdit represents the replacement of the code between Pos and End with the new text.
+type TextEdit struct {
+ // For a pure insertion, End can either be set to Pos or token.NoPos.
+ Pos token.Pos
+ End token.Pos
+ NewText []byte
+}
+```
+
+A suggested fix needs a message field so it can specify what it will do.
+Some analyses may not have clear cut fixes, and a suggested fix may need
+to provide additional information to help users specify whether they
+should be added.
+
+Suggested fixes are allowed to make multiple
+edits in a file, because some logical changes may affect otherwise
+unrelated parts of the AST.
+
+A TextEdit specifies a Pos and End: these will usually be the Pos
+and End of an AST node that will be replaced.
+
+Finally, the replacements themselves are represented as []bytes.
+
+
+Suggested fixes themselves will be added as a field in the
+Diagnostic struct:
+
+```go
+
+type Diagnostic struct {
+ ...
+ SuggestedFixes []SuggestedFix // this is an optional field
+}
+
+```
+
+## Alternatives
+
+# Performing transformations directly on the AST
+
+TODO(matloob): expand on this.
+
+Even though it may be more convienient
+for authors of refactorings to perform transformations directly on
+the AST, allowing mutations on the AST would mean that a copy of the AST
+would need to be made every time a transformation was produced, to avoid
+having transformations interfere with each other.
