LIMITATIONS.md
## Limitations of checkstyle checks
checkstyle has three types of checks:
- Line based
- Token based
- AST based
Which check uses what type is not instantly clear to the user.
### Line based checks
- scan files line by line
- usually applies a regex to each line
- tries to detect line separator by finding first occurrence of \r, \n or \r\n
- supports all features of Haxe
- can work with files that won't compile
### Token based checks
- relies on HaxeLexer from haxeparser library
- uses work in progress version of token tree builder
- might build incomplete / incorrect tree structure resulting in false positives / negatives
- might result in endless loops or stacktraces
- can be turned off, by not using token tree based checks (excluding them via config.json)
- has position information for all nodes
- access to parent and child nodes
- should support all features of Haxe
- easy search and filter for specific node types
- can work with files that won't compile (limited)
### AST based checks
- relies on HaxeParser from haxeparser library
- partial support for #if, #else, #elseif (only active conditionals)
- macro support unclear (needs to be confirmed / checked)
- no parent info for a given Expr or ComplexType
- position info available only for a subset of all AST nodes
- files must compile