compileIt for revolution?

[Alex Tweedly]

Richard Gaskin wrote:

> Derek Bump wrote:
>
>> If one who knows C and could figure out some sort of Transcript 
>> wrapper, then it would be possible.  There are many freeware and 
>> public domain compilers out there, but finding one that successfully 
>> compiles DLLs for Revolution is seemingly difficult.  I've been 
>> trying for a few months now, but with my limited knowledge of C I end 
>> up running into errors.
>>
>> I am working on this project, but the *confusing* Externals SDK 
>> doesn't help. 
>
>
> What aspects have you found confusing?
>
This is only a start ....

-  Doesn't say which compilers should work (tells me some that won't - 
but doesn't say which ones will - and in particular, doesn't say which 
free ones will :-)

(It kind of implies that many of them will, maybe even most of them - 
but a short list of a few that are expected to work would eliminate that 
as a possible explanation for troubles run into)

-  Includes a number of examples which are fragments of C code, without 
any comments describing the interface being provided, and without 
showing the corresponding Transcript

- Include samples like XSetArray which is a function using the 
"built-in" SetArray - but its parameters are never explained, and still 
something of a mystery.

- It doesn't include a "tiny, simple" example; I'd like to see a very 
simple example - e.g. return the string "hello program" - in a separate 
directory. Not doing OS specific "GetComputerName", not calling QT, not 
.... just a very, very simple example. With a correspondingly simple Rev 
stack, and step-by-step instructions (not as detailed as I sent to this 
list, but some kind of "here's the first thing to do" instructions). 

- it intermingles things which are (apart from exceptional cases) 
"fixed" with things which are your own, without distinguishing clearly - 
e.g. "There are two header files you'll need to #include, XCmdGlue.h and 
external.h. ..." But there is no "external.h" file included in the 
distribution - it means the header file for your code, which will be 
anything but "external.h"

In fact, the distribution includes article.c and article.h - what should 
happen is that article.c should #include the article.h - but it doesn't, 
it #includes external.h - which is non-existent, so you're guaranteed a 
compile failure at step 1. Not likely to inspire confidence.

- it uses examples where the C functions are named with leading 
underscores - when prepended underscores was described above as (one of 
) the reason(s)  why the Borland compiler won't work

- it includes extra functions that aren't referenced or used (as far as 
I can tell). e.g. XGetVar and XGetArray are in convolve_and_life.c - but 
I can't find anywhere they're used.

> I wonder if a Rev tool set up for writing C, generating the make file, 
> and running GCC would address a lot of this with very little effort....


-- 
Alex Tweedly       http://www.tweedly.net



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