| 1 | cfa-cc: Cforall to C Trans-compiler
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| 2 | ======================================
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| 3 |
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| 4 | This is a PRE-RELEASE version of cfa-cc. It exists solely for the purpose of
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| 5 | private experimentation and scholarly research. The authors disclaim all
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| 6 | responsibility for the consequences of any malfunction of the software,
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| 7 | including the malfunction of any programs compiled using the software.
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| 8 |
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| 9 |
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| 10 | What is Cforall?
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| 11 | ----------------
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| 12 | Cforall is a language design extending ISO C. The purpose of the project is to
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| 13 | engineer modern language features into C in an evolutionary rather than
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| 14 | revolutionary way. Java is an example of the revolutionary approach of
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| 15 | modernizing C/C++, resulting in a new language rather than an extension of its
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| 16 | descendents. C++, Fortran 95 and Cobol 9X are examples of the evolutionary
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| 17 | approach where modern language features are added and problems fixed within the
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| 18 | framework of an existing language.
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| 19 |
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| 20 | The goal of this project is to produce a largely backwards compatible version
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| 21 | of C containing many modern language features and fixing some of the well known
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| 22 | C problems. Without continued development of the language, C will be unable to
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| 23 | cope with the needs of modern programming problems and programmers; as a
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| 24 | result, it will fade into disuse. Considering the large body of existing C
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| 25 | code and programmers, there is a significant impetus to ensure C is transformed
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| 26 | into a modern programming language.
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| 27 |
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| 28 |
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| 29 | What is cfa-cc?
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| 30 | ---------------
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| 31 | cfa-cc is a collection of programs centred around a translator (trans-compiler)
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| 32 | that takes Cforall code as input and outputs augmented C code that implements
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| 33 | new features. The translator is complemented by a compiler driver in the style
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| 34 | of "gcc", which handles preprocessing (including cfa-cc after cpp), compiling,
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| 35 | assembling, and linking.
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| 36 |
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| 37 | cfa-cc is currently written in C++, but eventually be rewritten in Cforall.
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| 38 |
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| 39 |
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| 40 | How to download and build cfa-cc?
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| 41 | ----------------------------------------
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| 42 | Download cfa-cc using
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| 43 |
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| 44 | $ git clone https://github.com/cforall/cforall.git
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| 45 |
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| 46 | Read the ./INSTALL file for build instructions.
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| 47 |
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| 48 |
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| 49 | How to use cfa-cc?
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| 50 | -------------------
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| 51 | The compiler driver "cfa" accepts all of the arguments for gcc, and is used in
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| 52 | the same way. For example:
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| 53 |
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| 54 | cfa -c test.c
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| 55 | cfa test.o
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| 56 |
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| 57 | Cforall source files may end with '.c' or '.cfa' in order to be compiled by the
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| 58 | compiler driver. In addition, the flag "-CFA" causes cfa to invoke the C
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| 59 | preprocessor and Cforall translator and write the translator output to standard
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| 60 | output.
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| 61 |
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| 62 |
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| 63 | How to use C code with cfa-cc?
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| 64 | -----------------------------------
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| 65 | cfa-cc should be able to compile and link most ANSI C programs with associated
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| 66 | C standard libraries.
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| 67 |
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| 68 | Like C++, Cforall supports overloading, resulting in duplicate names that are
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| 69 | disambiguated using name mangling in the translated C code. To prevent
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| 70 | mangling of C names, it is necessary to wrap C declarations in an extern "C"
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| 71 | block, as for C++. For example:
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| 72 |
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| 73 | extern "C" {
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| 74 | #include <curses.h>
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| 75 | #include <getopt.h>
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| 76 | }
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| 77 |
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| 78 | The extern "C" turns off name mangling for functions and objects declared
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| 79 | within the block. All C standard headers are pre-wrapped, so most wrapping is
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| 80 | unnecessary.
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| 81 |
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| 82 |
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| 83 | What's wrong with cfa-cc?
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| 84 | -------------------------
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| 85 |
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| 86 | The authors consider cfa-cc to be in a semi-stable state. It is possible for
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| 87 | reasonable Cforall programs to fail compilation. A list of bugs and fixes is
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| 88 | available here: https://cforall.uwaterloo.ca/trac. We encourage users to
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| 89 | report their experiences to cforall@plg.uwaterloo.ca, but we can make no
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| 90 | promises regarding support.
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| 91 |
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| 92 | Also, the Cforall features web-page https://cforall.uwaterloo.ca/features lists
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| 93 | small syntactic and semantic differences with standard C.
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| 94 |
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| 95 |
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| 96 | Who is responsible for cfa-cc?
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| 97 | ------------------------------
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| 98 | Cforall was designed and implemented by Andrew Beach, Richard Bilson, Michael
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| 99 | Brooks, Peter A. Buhr, Thierry Delisle Glen Ditchfield, Rodolfo G. Esteves,
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| 100 | Aaron Moss, Colby Parsons, Rob Schluntz, Fangren Yu, Mubeen Zulfiqar, and others.
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| 101 |
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| 102 | Check the Cforall web site https://cforall.uwaterloo.ca for news and updates.
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