CppDepend is a C++ static analysis tool like Clang Static
Analyzer/CppCheck/Flint/Klocwork etc...
It's based on clang, which is a huge advantage in comparison to most other
tools, because such approach eliminates false positives related to custom
parser/lexer implementation.

The first question I had on my mind when I seen CppDepened the first time:
Why another tool? clang static analyzer isn't cool
enough? Well, I guess the answer might be found in additional features, visual
interface etc..., but we shall see.

To start, let's get the product download page then:

	http://www.cppdepend.com/cppdependdownload.aspx.

We can get 14-day trial or full version if we have a license key.
Well, I'm fortunately enough to have the license key thanks to very nice gesture
from CppDepend team. I'm going to download Linux version - 64 bits.

Next step will be to unpack our CppDepend:

	tar zxvf CppDepend_v4_0_0_64.tar.gz

and then we will get directory with few binaries/libs inside.
First thing I have noticed was, that clang binary might be found there as
well. Hmm, let's see what version then?

	$./clang -v
	clang version 3.2 (trunk)

Not the newest one, currently the stable version is 3.5 and 3.6 is on it's
way, so we won't be able to use a lot of C++14 features with the current
version.

So we have below binaries:
	BuildMonitor
	config
	CppDependConsole/CppDependConsole.sh/CppDepend.Console.exe
	ProjectMaker.exe
	VisualCppDepend/VisualCppDepend.exe
	mcs2

Hmm, why there are windows executables in linux version I don't know, but we can try
them, maybe is just a name confusion?

	$./ProjectMaker.exe
	bash: ./ProjectMaker.exe: cannot execute binary file

Seems like we won't be able to use ProjectMaker on linux since linux version
is not provided?

Let's try different ones then:

	$./config
	./config: line 1: syntax error near unexpected token \`newline'
	./config: line 1: \`<configuration>'

Okay, I guess I should stick with the provided documentation, which is really
easy to read and provide a lot of useful informations as well as step by step
tutorial.
	
Let's try with the simple example then.

	$cat t1.cpp
	int main() {
		auto* i = new int(); // memory leak
		return i != nullptr;
	}

Since we aren't using Visual Studio project we will have to provide
custom configuration - "BuildMonitor" is the tool which does the work.

	$./BuildMonitor clang++ --std=c++11 t1.cpp
	Segmentation fault

Oops,
	
	$./BuildMonitor --help
	Segmentation fault

Quick look in the documentation then:
	$cat Makefile
	all:
		clang++ --std=c++11 t1.cpp

	$./BuildMonitor -o t1.build make

Yay, it worked! "t1.build" contains specific information about how the project
was built.

Let's run VisualCppDepend then. We have to create project from our "t1.build"
configuration. At least on my linux the GUI seems a bit hard to see, but it
runs without any obstacles though. We click play button and we get a lot, really
a lot of statistics.

Okay there are few cool things:
	Dependency Graph/Dependency Matrix
	Metrics  - Line of codes, methods, etc...
	Create Query - in order to limit rules
	And a lot of rules, which unfortunately haven't been violated in our example

Seems that GUI has huge potential if one will get to know it. A lot of
graphs/diagrams and everything might be saved as a report - guess
managers/producers will love this tool.

But I'm a developer and I'm not really interested in all them fancy stuff. My
goal is to be able to run the analysis from command line quickly and integrate it with
my build system and preferably vi.

Supposedly CppDependConsole would do the job: 

	$./CppDependConsole.sh t1.cdproj
	INFO:    09/08/2014 12:11:34 Begin full analysis with CppDepend v4.0.0.8850
	INFO:    No Baseline for Comparison loaded.
	WARNING: This kind of project cant be analyzed by CppDepend {project}:
	if you can convert it to vcproj or use ProjectMaker to create your project description
	INFO:    No dependency cycle detected in projects referencement graph.
	INFO:    09/08/2014 12:11:34 Analyse dependencies of your application.
	INFO:    09/08/2014 12:11:34 Building the report (standard).
	INFO:    09/08/2014 12:11:36 End CppDepend analyse.
	INFO:    09/08/2014 12:11:36 Duration: 00:00:01
	INFO:    09/08/2014 12:11:36 Report built.

Hmm, no idea, well let's assume it worked and there were no errors.

Let's try different, more complex project then.
I chosen Dlib - http://dlib.net - which is a general purpose cross-platform C++ library
designed using contract programming and modern C++ techniques.

	$dlib-18.10/build$ BuildMonitor -o dlib.build cmake ../dlib

Okay, now we have results. Analysis was quick, took pretty much as much time
as the compilation.

We got 3 critical issues:
	1. Types too big
	2. Methods too complex
	3. Method with too many parameters

Alright, we have a lot of other issues as well. The main thing is, that
is really hard to get to the code from the rule. Rule explanations are useful,
but I would like to see where the problem occurs in the source code! Charts
look nice though. Let's try from command line, since it's really hard to verify
if rules are useful without seeing the source code.

	$dlib-18.10/build$ CppDependConsole.sh -o dlib.cdproj

Our output will looks like that:
	WARNING: 3 critical rules are violated.
	  - Types too big - critical
	  - Methods too complex - critical
	  - Methods with too many parameters - critical

Nice, but it's not really useful in order to fix them. I would like to see
something like that instead:

	dlib.cpp:100:1: in function dlib() - Types too big - critical
	dlib.cpp:200:1: function dlib() - Methods too complex - critical
	dlib.cpp:300:1: function dlib(a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h) - Methods with too many parameters - critical

Then I would be able to quickly fix it, I'm not going to open visual application, with every build.

Let's try /FullAnalysis

	$dlib-18.10/build$ CppDependConsole.sh -o dlib.cdproj /FullAnalysis 

Well, we will get the same results. Thought we will get all the warnings here
though as in visual version.

There is a really nice looking HTML output as well, which might be seen using
/ViewReport option:

	$dlib-18.10/build$ CppDependConsole.sh -o dlib.cdproj /ViewReport

To sum up, CppDepend seems to be a good product, especially for managers due
to a lot of graphs/diagrams and statistics in general. 
Linux version still requires quite a bit of work to be useful for developers
on daily bases.