Automatically generate C++ file from header?

Question

I have a bunch of C++ header files with various class and function declarations. So far, when I've been writing the C++ source file implementations of the declared classes and functions, I've been manually:

1. Copying the declarations from the header file to the corresponding source file.
2. Deleting "class classname {" and the matching "};"
3. Adding "classname::" onto the names of all the class functions.
4. Replacing the semicolons after the function declarations with "{}".
5. Deleting the keywords "virtual" and "static".

Only after all that work, which doesn't really do anything, can I actually go about implementing the functions. I am wondering if there is a tool out there somewhere that can automatically generate a ".cpp" file from a ".h" file, where the resulting ".cpp" contains empty stubs for the functions declared in the ".h" file (and for which an inline definition hasn't been given). A UNIX-friendly commandline tool would be preferred. Thanks.

UPDATE: A cross-platform tool would be ideal. If not, I am working on Mac OS X 10.6.

Answer 1

Lazy C++ appears to be designed to address precisely that problem.

Answer 2

The eclipse CDT has an "Implement method" feature which does just that (one method at a time). There is also a "Generate Getters and Setters" feature which also generates the appropriate code in the function bodies.

Answer 3

I found myself in your situation lately and manned up to write my own tool -- impl_me. It's a small Ruby script that uses SWIG as a parser backend. It writes to stdout so you can combine with your favorite nix toolset find/grep/sed/awk to tweak for your own preferences.

Because it's written in Ruby, it should be cross platform. SWIG is also cross platform so everything should be OK.

It's quite primitive at this stage and isn't as robust as Lazy C++ in terms of parsing strange templates and stuffs. Contributions are welcome :)