Action-Driven Human-Oriented Compiler

I. Intro

ADHOC is an application for abstracting programming logic away from the syntax of any particular language. The idea is that there is some important logic that only a programmer can supply, but most other program content is syntactic fluff for helping a text-based compiler understand the important logic. ADHOC supplies a graphical interface and optimization tools in order to let the programmer focus solely on designing the important logic.

II. Package Management

[Installing]

To install ADHOC, first create a directory to unpack the Git repo, then use Git to clone the files, and finally use the included make recipes to configure and install the application (you will need root access):

mkdir ~/adhoc_install; cd ~/adhoc_install
git clone https://github.com/pieman72/adhoc .
make configure install clean

Note: You will be asked for directories for ADHOC's binary, library, and include files.

[Updating]

You can update ADHOC from the master branch and refresh your installation by using the included make recipes:

cd ~/adhoc_install; make update fresh

[Uninstalling]

To remove all installed ADHOC files, you can use the included make recipe. You may then remove the repository itself:

cd ~/adhoc_install; make uninstall clean
cd ~; rm -rf adhoc_install

III. Usage

[Building a Logic File]

Currently, the only way to construct an ADHOC logic file is through ADHOC's front-end, which provides a graphical interface for expressing program flow. You can install the front-end yourself, or you can see it in action here.

[Generating Code]

ADHOC's "back-end" reads in a logic file ('.adh') and outputs code in a target language. Let's look at a basic example of how that's done, assuming you've created a logic file called 'test.adh', and you want to generate C code from that logic.

adhoc -l c -o test.c -e test.adh

Here's what this is doing:

• -l c (lowercase 'L') Sets the target language to C
• -o test.c Directs the generated code into the file 'test.c' instead of to stdout
• -e Makes the generated code ready as a standalone, including a main() function etc.
• test.adh the final argument should be the logic file being parsed

For a more complete list of CLI flags and options, run adhoc -h, or see the 'Features' section below.

[Compiling Generated Code]

For the most part, ADHOC attempts to make the generated code as portable as possible. However some adhoc features are not available in every language. To help, ADHOC comes with a number of support libraries for different languages. Compilation instructions vary from one language to the next. For example with C, ADHOC provides a libadhoc library as part of the C-generation module. Here's how you would link that library with the 'test.c' file mentioned above:

gcc -o test test.c -L/usr/lib/adhoc -ladhoc

This creates an executable file called 'test' that has linked into it any necessary features from libadhoc. Note: this assumes your ADHOC_LIB_PATH was set to '/usr/lib' during configuration.

IV. Features

[Application Components]

• The 'adhoc.ini' config file This stores options for how ADHOC runs, including the locations of the application's other files. This file itself is placed in the ADHOC_LIB_PATH (usually /usr/lib/adhoc/adhoc.ini), but you can override it with a local copy in your home directory or in the current working directory.
• The 'adhoc' binary file This is the main parser/generator that reads in a logic file and produces output. This is placed in the ADHOC_BIN_PATH directory.
• The 'libadhoc.a' library This is an archived library file that mostly contains items for compiling C/C++ programs generated by ADHOC. It is placed in the ADHOC_LIB_PATH directory.
• The 'libadhoc.h' header This file further assists in compilation of C/C++ programs generated by ADHOC. It is stored in the ADHOC_INC_PATH directory.

[CLI Arguments]

• -c filename, --config=filename Use filename as ADHOC's configuration file instead of the default adhoc.ini file.
• -d, --debug Print out debug information while parsing the file.
• -e, --executable In addition to generating the target language code from the input logic, ADHOC will also include code necessary to execute the output program (e.g. when generating C code, it will include a 'main()' function).
• -h, --help Print this usage information.
• -l lang, --language=lang Set the target language for code generation to lang. This overrides the value set for ADHOC_TARGET_LANGUAGE in the config file.
• -o filename, --outfile=filename Directs generated target code to filename instead of stdout. Similar to adhoc ... > filename, but won't affect version info, etc.
• -v, --version Print ADHOC version information.

V. More Info

[Open Source]

ADHOC is an open source project under the GPL v3. You are encouraged to get involved in, share, and contribute to the project.

[Questions / Contact]

Please report any bugs you find with ADHOC. If you have non-bug-related questions or comments, feel free to email [email protected].