Changes in README [6244dfb:51b73452]

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• README (modified) (2 diffs)

README

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 ======================================
 
-This is a PRE-RELEASE version of cfa-cc.  It exists solely for the purpose of
-private experimentation and scholarly research.  The authors disclaim all
-responsibility for the consequences of any malfunction of the software,
-including the malfunction of any programs compiled using the software.
+This is a PRE-RELEASE version of cfa-cc.  It exists solely for the
+purpose of private experimentation and scholarly research.  The authors
+disclaim all responsibility for the consequences of any malfunction of
+the software, including the malfunction of any programs compiled using
+the software.
 
 What is Cforall?
 ----------------
-Cforall is a language design extending ISO C. The purpose of the project is to
-engineer modern language features into C in an evolutionary rather than
-revolutionary way. Java is an example of the revolutionary approach of
-modernizing C/C++, resulting in a new language rather than an extension of its
-descendents. C++, Fortran 95 and Cobol 9X are examples of the evolutionary
-approach where modern language features are added and problems fixed within the
-framework of an existing language.
+Cforall is a language design extending ISO C. The purpose of the
+project is to engineer modern language features into C in an
+evolutionary rather than revolutionary way. Java is an example of the
+revolutionary approach of modernizing C/C++, resulting in a new
+language rather than an extension of its descendents. C++, Fortran 95
+and Cobol 9X are examples of the evolutionary approach where modern
+language features are added and problems fixed within the framework of
+an existing language.
 
-The goal of this project is to produce a largely backwards compatible version
-of C containing many modern language features and fixing some of the well known
-C problems. Without continued development of the language, C will be unable to
-cope with the needs of modern programming problems and programmers; as a
-result, it will fade into disuse.  Considering the large body of existing C
-code and programmers, there is a significant impetus to ensure C is transformed
-into a modern programming language.
+The goal of this project is to produce a largely backwards compatible
+version of C containing many modern language features and fixing some
+of the well known C problems. Without continued development of the
+language, C will be unable to cope with the needs of modern programming
+problems and programmers; as a result, it will fade into disuse.
+Considering the large body of existing C code and programmers, there is
+a significant impetus to ensure C is transformed into a modern
+programming language.
 
 What is cfa-cc?
 ---------------
-cfa-cc is a collection of programs centred around a translator that takes
-Cforall code as input and outputs corresponding C code.  This is complemented
-by a compiler driver in the style of "gcc", which handles preprocessing,
-compiling, assembling, and linking and invokes the translator at appropriate
-moments.
+cfa-cc is a collection of programs centred around a translator that
+takes Cforall code as input and outputs corresponding C code.  This
+is complemented by a compiler driver in the style of "gcc", which
+handles preprocessing, compiling, assembling, and linking and invokes
+the translator at appropriate moments.
 
 What is required in order to use cfa-cc?
 ----------------------------------------
-Building cfa-cc requires GNU Make and gcc/g++ 4.  cfa-cc is written in C++.
+Building cfa-cc requires GNU Make and gcc/g++ 3.  cfa-cc is written in
+C++.
 
-The compiler driver uses an installed version of gcc to handle all aspects of
-the compilation process except for the Cforall->C translation.  Currently, only
-gcc 4.x is supported.
+The compiler driver uses an installed version of gcc to handle all
+aspects of the compilation process except for the Cforall->C translation.
+Currently, only gcc 3.2 is supported.
 
 How is cfa-cc used?
 -------------------
-The compiler driver "cfa" accepts all of the arguments of gcc, and is used in
-the same way.  For example:
+The compiler driver "cfa" accepts all of the arguments of gcc, and is
+used in the same way.  For example:
 
         cfa -c test.c
         cfa test.o
 
-Cforall source files must end with '.c' in order to be compiled by the compiler
-driver.  In addition, the flag "-CFA" causes cfa to invoke the preprocessor and
-translator and send the translator output to standard output.
+Cforall source files must end with '.c' in order to be compiled by the
+compiler driver.  In addition, the flag "-CFA" causes cfa to invoke the
+preprocessor and translator and send the translator output to standard
+output.
 
-It is possible to invoke the translator directly.  The translator is installed
-by default as /usr/local/lib/cfa-cpp.  A typical invocation is:
+In cases where the compiler driver is not useful (i.e., where gcc 3.2
+is not available), it is still possible to invoke the translator
+directly.  The translator is installed by default as
+/usr/local/lib/cfa-cpp.  A typical invocation is:
 
         /usr/local/lib/cfa-cpp -cp infile outfile
 
-If outfile is omitted, output goes to standard output; if infile is also
-omitted, input comes from standard input.  Options to the translator other than
-"-cp" will not produce valid C code and are only useful for debugging the
-translator.
+If outfile is omitted, output goes to standard output; if infile is
+also omitted, input comes from standard input.  Options to the
+translator other than "-cp" will not produce valid C code and are only
+useful for debugging the translator.
 
 How can C code be used with cfa-cc?
 -----------------------------------
-cfa-cc should be able to compile most ANSI C programs.  It is also possible to
-link against C libraries in most cases.  Since Cforall supports overloading,
-however, names used in Cforall code are mangled in the output C code.  This
-caused linker failures when the names refer to functions and objects in code
-compiled with a standard C compiler.  For this reason, it is necessary to
-enclose the declarations of these functions and objects in extern "C" {}
+cfa-cc should be able to compile most ANSI C programs.  It is also
+possible to link against C libraries in most cases.  Since Cforall
+supports overloading, however, names used in Cforall code are
+mangled in the output C code.  This will cause linker failures when
+the names refer to functions and objects in code compiled with
+a standard C compiler.  For this reason, it is necessary to enclose
+the declarations of these functions and objects in extern "C" {}
 blocks.  For example:
 
@@ -79 +87 @@
 
 The extern "C" turns off name mangling for functions and objects declared
-within the block.  As a result, it is not possible to overload their names.
+within the block.  As a result, it is not possible to overload their
+names.
+
+It is our intention to have a transparent solution to this problem
+in place for our first official release.
 
 What's wrong with cfa-cc?
 -------------------------
+The authors consider this software to be in an unstable state.  It is
+quite likely that there are many reasonable programs that will fail
+to compile.  We encourage users to report their experiences to
+cforall@plg.uwaterloo.ca, but we make no promises regarding support.
 
-The authors consider this software to be in an unstable state.  It is quite
-likely that there are many reasonable programs that will fail to compile.  We
-encourage users to report their experiences to cforall@plg.uwaterloo.ca, but we
-make no promises regarding support.
+We have fixed most of the problems that we are aware of.  There are
+some exceptions:
 
-We have fixed most of the problems that we are aware of.  There are some
-exceptions:
+        - initializers are poorly implemented; in particular,
+        file-scope initializers may result in the generation of invalid
+        C code
 
-- initializers are poorly implemented; in particular, file-scope initializers
-  may result in the generation of invalid C code
+        - the ISO C99 designated initialization syntax '[n] = m' or
+        '.n = m' is not supported; use a colon in place of the equal sign
+        
+        - some legitimate programs will produce warnings from the C
+        compiler; these are harmless (in particular, the creation of
+        libcfa.a in the build process should cause four warnings from
+        gcc)
 
-- the ISO C99 designated initialization syntax '[n] = m' or '.n = m' is not
-  supported; use a colon in place of the equal sign
+        - abstract types introduced using the keyword 'type' are not
+        implemented (although 'type' can be used to introduce type
+        parameters)
 
-- some legitimate programs will produce warnings from the C compiler; these are
-  harmless (in particular, the creation of libcfa.a in the build process should
-  cause four warnings from gcc)
-
-- abstract types introduced using the keyword 'type' are not implemented
-  (although 'type' can be used to introduce type parameters)
-
-- the implicit coercion of structure types to the type of their first member is
-  not implemented
+        - the implicit coercion of structure types to the type of their
+        first member is not implemented
         
 Who is responsible for cfa-cc?