S-Lang Library C Programmer's Guide (v2.3.0)
John E. Davis <www.jedsoft.org>
Jul 4, 2018
____________________________________________________________
1. Preface
S-Lang is an interpreted language that was designed from the start to
be easily embedded into a program to provide it with a powerful
extension language. Examples of programs that use S-Lang as an
extension language include the jed text editor and the slrn
newsreader. Although S-Lang does not exist as a separate application,
it is distributed with a quite capable program called slsh (``slang-
shell'') that embeds the interpreter and allows one to execute S-Lang
scripts, or simply experiment with S-Lang at an interactive prompt.
Many of the the examples in this document are presented in the context
of one of the above applications.
S-Lang is also a programmer's library that permits a programmer to
develop sophisticated platform-independent software. In addition to
providing the S-Lang interpreter, the library provides facilities for
screen management, keymaps, low-level terminal I/O, etc.
1.1. A Brief History of S-Lang
I first began working on S-Lang sometime during the fall of 1992. At
that time I was writing a text editor (jed), which I wanted to endow
with a macro language. It occurred to me that an application-
independent language that could be embedded into the editor would
prove more useful because I could envision embedding it into other
programs. As a result, S-Lang was born.
S-Lang was originally a stack language that supported a postscript-
like syntax. For that reason, I named it S-Lang, where the S was
supposed to emphasize its stack-based nature. About a year later, I
began to work on a preparser that would allow one unfamiliar with
stack based languages to make use of a more traditional infix syntax.
Currently, the syntax of the language resembles C, nevertheless some
postscript-like features still remain, e.g., the `%' character is
still used as a comment delimiter.
1.2. Acknowledgements
Since I first released S-Lang, I have received a lot feedback about
the library and the language from many people. This has given me the
opportunity and pleasure to interact with a number of people to make
the library portable and easy to use. In particular, I would like to
thank the following individuals:
Luchesar Ionkov for his comments and criticisms of the syntax of the
language. He was the person who made me realize that the low-level
byte-code engine should be totally type-independent. He also improved
the tokenizer and preparser and impressed upon me that the language
needed a grammar.
Mark Olesen for his many patches to various aspects of the library and
his support on AIX. He also contributed a lot to the pre-processing
(SLprep) routines.
John Burnell for the OS/2 port of the video and keyboard routines. He
also made value suggestions regarding the interpreter interface.
Darrel Hankerson for cleaning up and unifying some of the code and the
makefiles.
Dominik Wujastyk who was always willing to test new releases of the
library.
Michael Elkins for his work on the curses emulation.
Hunter Goatley, Andy Harper, Martin P.J. Zinser, and Jouk Jansen for
their VMS support.
Dave Sims and Chin Huang for Windows 95 and Windows NT support, and
Dino Sangoi for the Windows DLL support.
I am also grateful to many other people who send in bug-reports, bug-
fixes, little enhancements, and suggestions, and so on. Without such
community involvement, S-Lang would not be as well-tested and stable
as it is. Finally, I would like to thank my wife for her support and
understanding while I spent long weekend hours developing the library.
2. Introduction
S-Lang is a C programmer's library that includes routines for the
rapid development of sophisticated, user friendly, multi-platform
applications. The S-Lang library includes the following:
o Low level tty input routines for reading single characters at a
time.
o Keymap routines for defining keys and manipulating multiple
keymaps.
o A high-level keyprocessing interface (SLkp) for handling function
and arrow keys.
o High level screen management routines for manipulating both
monochrome and color terminals. These routines are very efficient.
(SLsmg)
o Low level terminal-independent routines for manipulating the
display of a terminal. (SLtt)
o Routines for reading single line input with line editing and recall
capabilities. (SLrline)
o Searching functions: both ordinary searches and regular expression
searches. (SLsearch)
o An embedded stack-based language interpreter with a C-like syntax.
The library is currently available for OS/2, MSDOS, Unix, and VMS
systems. For the most part, the interface to library routines has been
implemented in such a way that it appears to be platform independent
from the point of view of the application. In addition, care has been
taken to ensure that the routines are ``independent'' of one another
as much as possible. For example, although the keymap routines require
keyboard input, they are not tied to S-Lang's keyboard input
routines--- one can use a different keyboard getkey routine if one
desires. This also means that linking to only part of the S-Lang
library does not pull the whole library into the application. Thus, S-
Lang applications tend to be relatively small in comparison to
programs that use libraries with similar capabilities.
3. Error Handling
Many of the S-Lang functions return 0 upon success or -1 to signify
failure. Other functions may return NULL to indicate failure. In
addition, upon failure, many will set the error state of the library
to a value that indicates the nature of the error. The value of this
state may be queried via the SLang_get_error function. This function
will return 0 to indicate that there is no error, or a non-zero value
such as one of the following constants:
SL_Any_Error SL_Index_Error
SL_OS_Error SL_Parse_Error
SL_Malloc_Error SL_Syntax_Error
SL_IO_Error SL_DuplicateDefinition_Error
SL_Write_Error SL_UndefinedName_Error
SL_Read_Error SL_Usage_Error
SL_Open_Error SL_Application_Error
SL_RunTime_Error SL_Internal_Error
SL_InvalidParm_Error SL_NotImplemented_Error
SL_TypeMismatch_Error SL_LimitExceeded_Error
SL_UserBreak_Error SL_Forbidden_Error
SL_Stack_Error SL_Math_Error
SL_StackOverflow_Error SL_DivideByZero_Error
SL_StackUnderflow_Error SL_ArithOverflow_Error
SL_ReadOnly_Error SL_ArithUnderflow_Error
SL_VariableUninitialized_Error SL_Domain_Error
SL_NumArgs_Error SL_Data_Error
SL_Unknown_Error SL_Unicode_Error
SL_Import_Error SL_InvalidUTF8_Error
For example, if a function tries to allocate memory but fails, then
SLang_get_error will return SL_Malloc_Error.
If the application makes use of the interpreter, then it is important
that application-specific functions called from the interpreter set
the error state of the library in order for exception handling to
work. This may be accomplished using the SLang_set_error function,
e.g.,
if (NULL == (fp = fopen (file, "r")))
SLang_set_error (SL_Open_Error);
Often it is desirable to give error message that contains more
information about the error. The SLang_verror function may be used for
this purpose:
if (NULL == (fp = fopen (file, "r")))
SLang_verror (SL_Open_Error, "Failed to open %s: errno=%d",
file, errno);
By default, SLang_verror will write the error message to stderr. For
applications that make use of the SLsmg routines it is probably better
for the error message to be printed to a specific area of the display.
The SLang_Error_Hook variable may be used to redirect error messages
to an application defined function, e.g.,
static void write_error (char *err)
{
SLsmg_gotorc (0, 0);
SLsmg_set_color (ERROR_COLOR);
SLsmg_write_string (err);
}
int main (int argc, char **argv)
{
/* Redirect error messages to write_error */
SLang_Error_Hook = write_error;
.
.
}
Under extremely rare circumstances the library will call the C exit
function causing the application to exit. This will happen if the
SLtt_get_terminfo is called but the terminal is not sufficiently
powerful. If this behavior is undesirable, then another function
exists (SLtt_initialize) that returns an error code. The other times
the library will exit are when the interpreter is called upon to do
something but has not been properly initialized by the application.
Such a condition is regarded as misuse of the libary and should be
caught by routine testing of the application during development. In
any case, when the library does call the exit function, it will call
an application-defined exit hook specified by the
SLang_Exit_Error_Hook variable:
static int exit_error_hook (char *fmt, va_list ap)
{
fprintf (stderr, "Fatal Error. Reason:");
vfprintf (stderr, fmt, va_list);
}
int main (int argc, char **argv)
{
SLang_Exit_Error_Hook = exit_error_hook;
.
.
}
The idea is that the hook can be used to perform some cleanup, free
resources, and other tasks that the application needs to do for a
clean exit.
4. Unicode Support
S-Lang has native support for the UTF-8 encoding of unicode in a
number of its interfaces including the the SLsmg screen mangement
interface as well as the interpreter. UTF-8 is a variable length
multibyte encoding where unicode characters are represented by one to
six bytes. A technical description of the UTF-encoding is beyond the
scope of this document, and as such the reader is advised to look
elsewhere for a more detailed specification of the encoding.
By default, the library's handling of UTF-8 is turned off. It may be
enabled by a call to the SLutf8_enable function:
int SLutf8_enable (int mode)
If the value of mode is 1, then the library will be put in UTF-8 mode.
If the value of mode is 0, then the library will be initialized with
UTF-8 support disabled. If the value is -1, then the mode will deter-
mined through an OS-dependent manner, e.g., for Unix, the standard lo-
cale mechanism will be used. The return value of this function will be
1 if UTF-8 support was activated, or 0 if not.
The above function determines the UTF-8 state of the library as a
whole. For some purposes it may be desirable to have more fine-grained
control of the UTF-8 support. For example, one might be using the jed
editor to view a UTF-8 encoded file but the terminal associated with
the editor may not support UTF-8. In such a case, one would want the
SLsmg interface to be in UTF-8 mode but lower-level SLtt interface to
not be in UTF-8 mode. Hence, the following activation functions are
also provided:
int SLsmg_utf8_enable (int mode);
int SLtt_utf8_enable (int mode);
int SLinterp_utf8_enable (int mode);
Note that once one of these interface specific functions has been
called, any further calls to the umbrella function SLutf8_enable will
have no effect on that interface. For this reason, it is best to call
SLutf8_enable first before the calling one of the interface-specific
functions.
Until support for Unicode is more widespread among users, it is
expected that most users will still be using a national character set
such as ASCII or iso-8869-1. For example, iso-8869-1 is a very
widespread character set used on Usenet. As a result, applications
will still have to provide support for such character sets.
Unfortunately there appears to be no best way to do this.
For the most part, the UTF-8 support should be largely transparent to
the user. For example, the interpreter treats all multibyte characters
as a single character which means that the user does not have to be
concerned about the internal representation of a character. Rather one
must keep in mind the distinction between a character and a byte.
5. Interpreter Interface
The S-Lang library provides an interpreter that when embedded into an
application, makes the application extensible. Examples of programs
that embed the interpreter include the jed editor and the slrn
newsreader.
Embedding the interpreter is easy. The hard part is to decide what
application specific built-in or intrinsic functions should be
provided by the application. The S-Lang library provides some pre-
defined intrinsic functions, such as string processing functions, and
simple file input-output routines. However, the basic philosophy
behind the interpreter is that it is not a standalone program and it
derives much of its power from the application that embeds it.
5.1. Embedding the Interpreter
Only one function needs to be called to embed the S-Lang interpreter
into an application: SLang_init_slang. This function initializes the
interpreter's data structures and adds some intrinsic functions:
if (-1 == SLang_init_slang ())
exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
This function does not provide file input output intrinsic nor does it
provide mathematical functions. To make these as well as some posix
system calls available use
if ((-1 == SLang_init_slang ()) /* basic interpreter functions */
|| (-1 == SLang_init_slmath ()) /* sin, cos, etc... */
|| (-1 == SLang_init_array ()) /* sum, min, max, transpose... */
|| (-1 == SLang_init_stdio ()) /* stdio file I/O */
|| (-1 == SLang_init_ospath ()) /* path_concat, etc... */
|| (-1 == SLang_init_posix_dir ()) /* mkdir, stat, etc. */
|| (-1 == SLang_init_posix_process ()) /* getpid, umask, etc. */
|| (-1 == SLang_init_posix_io ()) /* open, close, read, ... */
|| (-1 == SLang_init_signal ()) /* signal, alarm, ... */
)
exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
If you intend to enable all intrinsic functions, then it is simpler to
initialize the interpreter via
if (-1 == SLang_init_all ())
exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
See the S-Lang Library Intrinsic Function Reference for more informa-
tion about the intrinsic functions.
5.2. Calling the Interpreter
There are several ways of calling the interpreter. The two most common
method is to load a file containing S-Lang code, or to load a string.
5.2.1. Loading Files
The SLang_load_file and SLns_load_file functions may be used to
interpret a file. Both these functions return zero if successful, or
-1 upon failure. If either of these functions fail, the interpreter
will accept no more code unless the error state is cleared. This is
done by calling SLang_restart function to set the interpreter to its
default state:
if (-1 == SLang_load_file ("site.sl"))
{
/* Clear the error and reset the interpreter */
SLang_restart (1);
}
When a file is loaded via SLang_load_file, any non-public variables
and functions defined in the file will be placed into a namespace that
is local to the file itself. The SLns_load_file function may be used
to load a file using a specified namespace, e.g.,
if (-1 == SLns_load_file ("site.sl", "NS"))
{
SLang_restart (1);
SLang_set_error (0);
}
will load site.sl into a namespace called NS. If such a namespace does
not exist, then it will be created.
Both the SLang_load_file and SLns_load_file functions search for files
along an application-specified search path. This path may be set using
the SLpath_set_load_path function, as well as from interpeted code via
the set_slang_load_path function. By default, no search path is
defined.
NOTE: It is highly recommended that an application embedding the
interpreter include the slsh lib directory in the search path. The .sl
files that are part of slsh are both useful and and should work with
any application embedding the interpreter. Moreover, if the
application permits dynamically loaded modules, then there are a
growing number of excellent quality modules for slsh that can be
utilized by it. Applications that follow this recommendation are said
to be conforming.
Files are searched as follows: If the name begins with the equivalent
of "./" or "../", then it is searched for with respect to the current
directory, and not along the load-path. If no such file exists, then
an error will be generated. Otherwise, the file is searched for in
each of the directories of the load-path by concatenating the path
element with the specified file name. The first such file found to
exist by this process will be loaded. If a matching file still has not
been found, and the file name lacks an extension, then the path is
searched with ".sl" and ".slc" appended to the filename. If two such
files are found (one ending with ".sl" and the other with ".slc"),
then the more recent of the two will be used. If no matching file has
been found by this process, then the search will cease and an error
generated.
The search path is a delimiter separated list of directories that
specify where the interpreter looks for files. By default, the value
of the delimiter is OS-dependent following the convention of the
underlying OS. For example, on Unix the delimiter is represented by a
colon, on DOS/Windows it is a semi-colon, and on VMS it is a space.
The SLpath_set_delimiter and SLpath_get_delimiter may be used to set
and query the delimiter's value, respectively.
5.2.2. Loading Strings
There are several other mechanisms for interacting with the
interpreter. For example, the SLang_load_string function loads a
string into the interpreter and interprets it:
if (-1 == SLang_load_string ("message (\"hello\");"))
return;
Similarly, the SLns_load_string function may be used to load a string
into a specified namespace.
Typically, an interactive application will load a file via
SLang_load_file and then go into a loop that consists of reading lines
of input and sending them to the interpreter, e.g.,
while (EOF != fgets (buf, sizeof (buf), stdin))
{
if (-1 == SLang_load_string (buf))
{
SLang_restart (1);
}
}
Finally, some applications such as jed and slrn use another method of
interacting with the interpreter. They read key sequences from the
keyboard and map those key sequences to interpreter functions via the
S-Lang keymap interface.
5.3. Intrinsic Functions
An intrinsic function is simply a function that is written in C and is
made available to the interpreter as a built-in function. For this
reason, the words `intrinsic' and `built-in' are often used
interchangeably.
Applications are expected to add application specific functions to the
interpreter. For example, jed adds nearly 300 editor-specific
intrinsic functions. The application designer should think carefully
about what intrinsic functions to add to the interpreter.
5.3.1. Restrictions on Intrinsic Functions
When implementing intrinsic functions, it is necessary to follow a few
rules to cooperate with the interpreter.
The C version of an intrinsic function takes only pointer arguments.
This is because when the interpreter calls an intrinsic function, it
passes values to the function by reference and not by value. For
example, intrinsic with the declarations:
int intrinsic_0 (void);
int intrinsic_1 (char *s);
void intrinsic_2 (char *s, int *i);
void intrinsic_3 (int *i, double *d, double *e);
are all valid. However,
int invalid_1 (char *s, int len);
is not valid since the len parameter is not a pointer.
The return value of an intrinsic function must be one of the following
types: void, char, short, int, long, double, char *, as well as
unsigned versions of the integer types. A function such as
int *invalid (void);
is not permitted since int* is not a valid return-type for an intrin-
sic function. Any other type of value can be passed back to the inter-
preter by explicitly pushing the object onto the interpreter's stack
via the appropriate "push" function.
The current implementation limits the number of arguments of an
intrinsic function to 7. The "pop" functions can be used to allow the
function to take an arbitrary number as seen from an interpreter
script.
Another restriction is that the intrinsic function should regard all
its parameters as pointers to constant objects and make no attempt to
modify the value to which they point. For example,
void truncate (char *s)
{
s[0] = 0;
}
is illegal since the function modifies the string s.
5.3.2. Adding a New Intrinsic
There are two basic mechanisms for adding an intrinsic function to the
interpreter: SLadd_intrinsic_function and SLadd_intrin_fun_table.
Functions may be added to a specified namespace via
SLns_add_intrinsic_function and SLns_add_intrin_fun_table functions.
As an specific example, consider a function that will cause the
program to exit via the exit C library function. It is not possible to
make this function an intrinsic because it does not meet the
specifications for an intrinsic function that were described earlier.
However, one can call exit from a function that is suitable, e.g.,
void intrin_exit (int *code)
{
exit (*code);
}
This function may be made available to the interpreter as an intrinsic
via the SLadd_intrinsic_function routine:
if (-1 == SLadd_intrinsic_function ("exit", (FVOID_STAR) intrin_exit,
SLANG_VOID_TYPE, 1,
SLANG_INT_TYPE))
exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
This statement basically tells the interpreter that intrin_exit is a
function that returns nothing and takes a single argument: a pointer
to an integer (SLANG_INT_TYPE). A user can call this function from
within the interpreter via
message ("Calling the exit function");
exit (0);
After printing a message, this will cause the intrin_exit function to
execute, which in turn calls exit.
The most convenient mechanism for adding new intrinsic functions is to
create a table of SLang_Intrin_Fun_Type objects and add the table via
the SLadd_intrin_fun_table function. The table will look like:
SLang_Intrin_Fun_Type My_Intrinsics [] =
{
/* table entries */
MAKE_INTRINSIC_N(...),
MAKE_INTRINSIC_N(...),
.
.
MAKE_INTRINSIC_N(...),
SLANG_END_INTRIN_FUN_TABLE
};
Construction of the table entries may be facilitated using a set of
MAKE_INTRINSIC macros defined in slang.h. The main macro is called
MAKE_INTRINSIC_N and takes 11 arguments:
MAKE_INTRINSIC_N(name, funct-ptr, return-type, num-args,
arg-1-type, arg-2-type, ... arg-7-type)
Here name is the name of the intrinsic function that the interpreter
is to give to the function. func-ptr is a pointer to the intrinsic
function taking num-args and returning ret-type. The final 7 arguments
specify the argument types. For example, the intrin_exit intrinsic de-
scribed above may be added to the table using
MAKE_INTRINSIC_N("exit", intrin_exit, SLANG_VOID_TYPE, 1,
SLANG_INT_TYPE, 0,0,0,0,0,0)
While MAKE_INTRINSIC_N is the main macro for constructing table
entries, slang.h defines other macros that may prove useful. In
particular, an entry for the intrin_exit function may also be created
using any of the following forms:
MAKE_INTRINSIC_1("exit", intrin_exit, SLANG_VOID_TYPE, SLANG_INT_TYPE)
MAKE_INTRINSIC_I("exit", intrin_exit, SLANG_VOID_TYPE)
See slang.h for related macros. You are also encouraged to look at,
e.g., slang/src/slstd.c for a more extensive examples.
The table may be added via the SLadd_intrin_fun_table function, e.g.,
if (-1 == SLadd_intrin_fun_table (My_Intrinsics, NULL))
{
/* an error occurred */
}
Please note that there is no need to load a given table more than
once, and it is considered to be an error on the part of the applica-
tion it adds the same table multiple times. For performance reasons,
no checking is performed by the library to see if a table has already
been added.
Earlier it was mentioned that intrinsics may be added to a specified
namespace. To this end, one must first get a pointer to the namespace
via the SLns_create_namespace function. The following example
illustrates how this function is used to add the My_Intrinsics table
to a namespace called my:
SLang_NameSpace_Type *ns = SLns_create_namespace ("my");
if (ns == NULL)
return -1;
return SLns_add_intrin_fun_table (ns, My_Intrinsics, "__MY__"));
5.3.3. More Complicated Intrinsics
The intrinsic functions described in the previous example were
functions that took a fixed number of arguments. In this section we
explore more complex intrinsics such as those that take a variable
number of arguments.
Consider a function that takes two double precision numbers and
returns the lesser:
double intrin_min (double *a, double *b)
{
if (*a < *b) return *a;
return *b;
}
This function may be added to a table of intrinsics using
MAKE_INTRINSIC_2("vmin", intrin_min, SLANG_DOUBLE_TYPE,
SLANG_DOUBLE_TYPE, SLANG_DOUBLE_TYPE)
It is useful to extend this function to take an arbitray number of ar-
guments and return the lesser. Consider the following variant:
double intrin_min_n (int *num_ptr)
{
double min_value, x;
unsigned int num = (unsigned int) *num_ptr;
if (-1 == SLang_pop_double (&min_value))
return 0.0;
num--;
while (num > 0)
{
num--;
if (-1 == SLang_pop_double (&x))
return 0.0;
if (x < min_value) min_value = x;
}
return min_value;
}
Here the number to compare is passed to the function and the actual
numbers are removed from the stack via the SLang_pop_double function.
A suitable table entry for it is
MAKE_INTRINSIC_I("vmin", intrin_min_n, SLANG_DOUBLE_TYPE)
This function would be used in an interpreter script via a statement
such as
variable xmin = vmin (x0, x1, x2, x3, x4, 5);
which computes the smallest of 5 values.
The problem with this intrinsic function is that the user must
explicitly specify how many numbers to compare. It would be more
convenient to simply use
variable xmin = vmin (x0, x1, x2, x3, x4);
An intrinsic function can query the value of the variable
SLang_Num_Function_Args to obtain the necessary information:
double intrin_min (void)
{
double min_value, x;
unsigned int num = SLang_Num_Function_Args;
if (-1 == SLang_pop_double (&min_value, NULL, NULL))
return 0.0;
num--;
while (num > 0)
{
num--;
if (-1 == SLang_pop_double (&x, NULL, NULL))
return 0.0;
if (x < min_value) min_value = x;
}
return min_value;
}
This may be declared as an intrinsic using:
MAKE_INTRINSIC_0("vmin", intrin_min, SLANG_DOUBLE_TYPE)
5.4. Intrinsic Variables
It is possible to access an application's global variables from within
the interpreter. The current implementation supports the access of
variables of type int, char *, and double.
There are two basic methods of making an intrinsic variable available
to the interpreter. The most straight forward method is to use the
function SLadd_intrinsic_variable:
int SLadd_intrinsic_variable (char *name, VOID_STAR addr,
SLtype data_type,
int read_only);
For example, suppose that I is an integer variable, e.g.,
int I;
One can make it known to the interpreter as I_Variable via a statement
such as
if (-1 == SLadd_intrinsic_variable ("I_Variable", &I,
SLANG_INT_TYPE, 0))
exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
Similarly, if S is declared as
char *S;
then
if (-1 == SLadd_intrinsic_variable ("S_Variable", &S,
SLANG_STRING_TYPE, 1))
exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
makes S available as a read-only variable with the name S_Variable.
Note that if a pointer variable is made available to the interpreter,
it should be declared as being read-only to prevent the interpreter
from changing the pointer's value.
It is important to note that if S were declared as an array of
characters, e.g.,
char S[256];
then it would not be possible to make it directly available to the in-
terpreter. However, one could create a pointer to it, i.e.,
char *S_Ptr = S;
and make S_Ptr available as a read-only variable.
One should not make the mistake of trying to use the same address for
different variables as the following example illustrates:
int do_not_try_this (void)
{
static char *names[3] = {"larry", "curly", "moe"};
unsigned int i;
for (i = 0; i < 3; i++)
{
int value;
if (-1 == SLadd_intrinsic_variable (names[i], (VOID_STAR) &value,
SLANG_INT_TYPE, 1))
return -1;
}
return 0;
}
Not only does this piece of code create intrinsic variables that use
the same address, it also uses the address of a local variable that
will go out of scope.
The most convenient method for adding many intrinsic variables to the
interpreter is to create an array of SLang_Intrin_Var_Type objects and
then add the array via SLadd_intrin_var_table. For example, the array
static SLang_Intrin_Var_Type Intrin_Vars [] =
{
MAKE_VARIABLE("I_Variable", &I, SLANG_INT_TYPE, 0),
MAKE_VARIABLE("S_Variable", &S_Ptr, SLANG_STRING_TYPE, 1),
SLANG_END_TABLE
};
may be added via
if (-1 == SLadd_intrin_var_table (Intrin_Vars, NULL))
exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
It should be rather obvious that the arguments to the MAKE_VARIABLE
macro correspond to the parameters of the SLadd_intrinsic_variable
function.
Finally, variables may be added to a specific namespace via the
SLns_add_intrin_var_table and SLns_add_intrinsic_variable functions.
5.5. Aggregate Data Objects
An aggregate data object is an object that can contain more than one
data value. The S-Lang interpreter supports several such objects:
arrays, structure, and associative arrays. In the following sections,
information about interacting with these objects is given.
5.5.1. Arrays
An intrinsic function may interact with an array in several different
ways. For example, an intrinsic may create an array and return it.
The basic functions for manipulating arrays include:
SLang_create_array
SLang_pop_array_of_type
SLang_push_array
SLang_free_array
SLang_get_array_element
SLang_set_array_element
The use of these functions will be illustrated via a few simple exam-
ples.
The first example shows how to create an return an array of strings to
the interpreter. In particular, the names of the four seasons of the
year will be returned:
void months_of_the_year (void)
{
static char *seasons[4] =
{
"Spring", "Summer", "Autumn", "Winter"
};
SLang_Array_Type *at;
SLindex_Type i, four;
four = 4;
at = SLang_create_array (SLANG_STRING_TYPE, 0, NULL, &four, 1);
if (at == NULL)
return;
/* Now set the elements of the array */
for (i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
if (-1 == SLang_set_array_element (at, &i, &seasons[i]))
{
SLang_free_array (at);
return;
}
}
(void) SLang_push_array (at, 0);
SLang_free_array (at);
}
This example illustrates several points:
First of all, the SLang_create_array function was used to create a 1
dimensional array of 4 strings. Since this function could fail, its
return value was checked. Also SLindex_Type was used for the array
size and index types. In S-Lang version 2, SLindex_Type is typedefed
to be an int. However, as this will change in a future version of the
library, SLindex_Type should be used.
The SLang_set_array_element function was used to set the elements of
the newly created array. Note that the address containing the value of
the array element was passed and not the value of the array element
itself. That is,
SLang_set_array_element (at, &i, seasons[i])
was not used. The return value from this function was also checked be-
cause it too could also fail.
Finally, the array was pushed onto the interpreter's stack and then it
was freed. It is important to understand why it was freed. This is
because arrays are reference-counted. When the array was created, it
was returned with a reference count of 1. When it was pushed, the
reference count was bumped up to 2. Then since it was nolonger needed
by the function, SLang_free_array was called to decrement the
reference count back to 1. For convenience, the second argument to
SLang_push_array determines whether or not it is to also free the
array. So, instead of the two function calls:
(void) SLang_push_array (at, 0);
SLang_free_array (at);
it is preferable to combine them as
(void) SLang_push_array (at, 1);
The second example returns a diagonal array of a specified size to the
stack. A diagonal array is a 2-d array with all elements zero except
for those along the diagonal, which have a value of one:
void make_diagonal_array (SLindex_Type n)
{
SLang_Array_Type *at;
SLindex_Type dims[2];
SLindex_Type i, one;
dims[0] = dims[1] = n;
at = SLang_create_array (SLANG_INT_TYPE, 0, NULL, dims, 2);
if (at == NULL)
return;
one = 1;
for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
{
dims[0] = dims[1] = i;
if (-1 == SLang_set_array_element (at, dims, &one))
{
SLang_free_array (at);
return;
}
}
(void) SLang_push_array (at, 1);
}
In this example, only the diagonal elements of the array were set.
This is bacause when the array was created, all its elements were set
to zero.
Now consider an example that acts upon an existing array. In
particular, consider one that computes the trace of a 2-d matrix,
i.e., the sum of the diagonal elements:
double compute_trace (void)
{
SLang_Array_Type *at;
double trace;
SLindex_Type dims[2];
if (-1 == SLang_pop_array_of_type (&at, SLANG_DOUBLE_TYPE))
return 0.0;
/* We want a 2-d square matrix. If the matrix is 1-d and has only one
element, then return that element. */
trace = 0.0;
if (((at->num_dims == 1) && (at->dims[0] == 1))
|| ((at->num_dims == 2) && (at->dims[0] == at->dims[1])))
{
double dtrace;
SLindex_Type n = at->dims[0];
for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
{
dims[0] = dims[1] = i;
(void) SLang_get_array_element (at, &dims, &dtrace);
trace += dtrace;
}
}
else SLang_verror (SL_TYPE_MISMATCH, "Expecting a square matrix");
SLang_free_array (at);
return trace;
}
In this example, SLang_pop_array_of_type was used to pop an array of
doubles from the stack. This function will make implicit typecasts in
order to return an array of the requested type.
5.5.2. Structures
For the purposes of this section, we shall differentiate structures
according to whether or not they correspond to an application defined
C structure. Those that do are called intrinsic structures, and those
do not are called S-Lang interpreter structures.
5.5.2.1. Interpreter Structures
The following simple example shows one method that may be used to
create and return a structure with a string and integer field to the
interpreter's stack:
int push_struct_example (char *string_value, int int_value)
{
char *field_names[2];
SLtype field_types[2];
VOID_STAR field_values[2];
field_names[0] = "string_field";
field_types[0] = SLANG_STRING_TYPE;
field_values[0] = &string_value;
field_names[1] = "int_field";
field_types[1] = SLANG_INT_TYPE;
field_values[1] = &int_value;
if (-1 == SLstruct_create_struct (2, field_names,
field_types, field_values))
return -1;
return 0;
}
Here, SLstruct_create_struct is used to push a structure with the
specified field names and values onto the interpreter's stack.
A simpler mechanism exists provided that one has already defined a C
structure with a description of how the structure is laid out. For
example, consider a C structure defined by
typedef struct
{
char *s;
int i;
}
SI_Type;
Its layout may be specified via a table of SLang_CStruct_Field_Type
entries:
SLang_CStruct_Field_Type SI_Type_Layout [] =
{
MAKE_CSTRUCT_FIELD(SI_Type, s, "string_field", SLANG_STRING_TYPE, 0),
MAKE_CSTRUCT_FIELD(SI_Type, i, "int_field", SLANG_INT_TYPE, 0),
SLANG_END_CSTRUCT_TABLE
};
Here, MAKE_CSTRUCT_FIELD is a macro taking 5 arguments:
MAKE_CSTRUCT_FIELD(C-structure-type,
C-field-name,
slang-field-name,
slang-data-type,
is-read-only)
The first argument is the structure type, the second is the name of a
field of the structure, the third is a string that specifies the name
of the corresponding field of the S-Lang structure, the fourth argu-
ment specifies the field's type, and the last argument specifies
whether or not the field should be regarded as read-only.
Once the layout of the structure has been specified, pushing a S-Lang
version of the structure is trival:
int push_struct_example (char *string_value, int int_value)
{
SI_Type si;
si.s = string_value;
si.i = int_value;
return SLang_push_cstruct ((VOID_STAR)&si, SI_Type_Layout);
}
This mechanism of structure creation also permits a S-Lang structure
to be passed to an intrinsic function through the use of the
SLang_pop_cstruct routine, e.g.,
void print_si_struct (void)
{
SI_Type si;
if (-1 == SLang_pop_cstruct ((VOID_STAR)&si, SI_Type_Layout))
return;
printf ("si.i=%d", si.i);
printf ("si.s=%s", si.s);
SLang_free_cstruct ((VOID_STAR)&si, SI_Type_Layout);
}
Assuming print_si_struct exists as an intrinsic function, the S-Lang
code
variable s = struct {string_field, int_field};
s.string_field = "hello";
s.int_field = 20;
print_si_struct (s);
would result in the display of
si.i=20;
si.s=hello
Note that the SLang_free_cstruct function was called after the con-
tents of si were nolonger needed. This was necessary because
SLang_pop_cstruct allocated memory to set the char *s field of si.
Calling SLang_free_cstruct frees up such memory.
Now consider the following:
typedef struct
{
pid_t pid;
gid_t group;
}
X_t;
How should the layout of this structure be defined? One might be
tempted to use:
SLang_CStruct_Field_Type X_t_Layout [] =
{
MAKE_CSTRUCT_FIELD(X_t, pid, "pid", SLANG_INT_TYPE, 0),
MAKE_CSTRUCT_FIELD(X_t, group, "group", SLANG_INT_TYPE, 0),
SLANG_END_CSTRUCT_TABLE
};
However, this assumes pid_t and gid_t have been typedefed as ints. But
what if gid_t is a short? In such a case, using
MAKE_CSTRUCT_FIELD(X_t, group, "group", SLANG_SHORT_TYPE, 0),
would be the appropriate entry for the group field. Of course, one has
no way of knowing how gid_t is declared on other systems. For this
reason, it is preferable to use the MAKE_CSTRUCT_INT_FIELD macro in
cases involving integer valued fields, e.g.,
SLang_CStruct_Field_Type X_t_Layout [] =
{
MAKE_CSTRUCT_INT_FIELD(X_t, pid, "pid", 0),
MAKE_CSTRUCT_INT_FIELD(X_t, group, "group", 0),
SLANG_END_CSTRUCT_TABLE
};
Before leaving this section, it is important to mention that access to
character array fields is not permitted via this interface. That is, a
structure such as
typedef struct
{
char name[32];
}
Name_Type;
is not supported since char name[32] is not a SLANG_STRING_TYPE ob-
ject. Always keep in mind that a SLANG_STRING_TYPE object is a char *.
5.5.2.2. Intrinsic Structures
Here we show how to make intrinsic structures available to the
interpreter.
The simplest interface is to structure pointers and not to the actual
structures themselves. The latter would require the interpreter to be
involved with the creation and destruction of the structures. Dealing
with the pointers themselves is far simpler.
As an example, consider an object such as
typedef struct _Window_Type
{
char *title;
int row;
int col;
int width;
int height;
} Window_Type;
which defines a window object with a title, size (width, height), and
location (row, col).
We can make variables of type Window_Type available to the interpreter
via a table as follows:
static SLang_IStruct_Field_Type Window_Type_Field_Table [] =
{
MAKE_ISTRUCT_FIELD(Window_Type, title, "title", SLANG_STRING_TYPE, 1),
MAKE_ISTRUCT_FIELD(Window_Type, row, "row", SLANG_INT_TYPE, 0),
MAKE_ISTRUCT_FIELD(Window_Type, col, "col", SLANG_INT_TYPE, 0),
MAKE_ISTRUCT_FIELD(Window_Type, width, "width", SLANG_INT_TYPE, 0),
MAKE_ISTRUCT_FIELD(Window_Type, height, "height", SLANG_INT_TYPE, 0),
SLANG_END_ISTRUCT_TABLE
};
More precisely, this defines the layout of the Window_Type structure.
Here, the title has been declared as a read-only field. Using
MAKE_ISTRUCT_FIELD(Window_Type, title, "title", SLANG_STRING_TYPE, 0),
would allow read-write access.
Now suppose that My_Window is a pointer to a Window_Type object, i.e.,
Window_Type *My_Window;
We can make this variable available to the interpreter via the
SLadd_istruct_table function:
if (-1 == SLadd_istruct_table (Window_Type_Field_Table,
(VOID_STAR) &My_Window,
"My_Win"))
exit (1);
This creates a S-Lang interpreter variable called My_Win whose value
corresponds to the My_Win structure. This would permit one to access
the fields of My_Window via S-Lang statements such as
define set_width_and_height (w,h)
{
My_Win.width = w;
My_Win.height = h;
}
It is extremely important to understand that the interface described
in this section does not allow the interpreter to create new instances
of Window_Type objects. The interface merely defines an association or
correspondence between an intrinsic structure pointer and a S-Lang
variable. For example, if the value of My_Window is NULL, then My_Win
would also be NULL.
One should be careful in allowing read/write access to character
string fields. If read/write access is allowed, then the application
should always use the SLang_create_slstring and SLang_free_slstring
functions to set the character string field of the structure.
5.6. Signals
If your program that embeds the interpreter processes signals, then it
may be undesirable to allow access to all signals from the
interpreter. For example, if your program has a signal handler for
SIGHUP then it is possible that an interpreter script could specify a
different signal handler, which may or may not be desirable. If you
do not want to allow the interpreter access to some signal, then that
signal can be made off-limits to the interpreter via the
SLsig_forbid_signal function:
/* forbid a signal handler for SIGHUP */
SLsig_forbid_signal (SIGHUP, 1);
/* Allow a signal handler for SIGTERM */
SLsig_forbid_signal (SIGTERM, 0);
By default, all signals are allowed access from the interpreter.
5.7. Exceptions
6. Keyboard Interface
S-Lang's keyboard interface has been designed to allow an application
to read keyboard input from the user in a system-independent manner.
The interface consists of a set of low routines for reading single
character data as well as a higher level interface (SLkp) which
utilize S-Lang's keymap facility for reading multi-character
sequences.
To initialize the interface, one must first call the function
SLang_init_tty. Before exiting the program, the function
SLang_reset_tty must be called to restore the keyboard interface to
its original state. Once initialized, the low-level SLang_getkey
function may be used to read single keyboard characters from the
terminal. An application using the higher-level SLkp interface will
read charcters using the SLkp_getkey function.
In addition to these basic functions, there are also functions to
``unget'' keyboard characters, flush the input, detect pending-input
with a timeout, etc. These functions are defined below.
6.1. Initializing the Keyboard Interface
The function SLang_init_tty must be called to initialize the terminal
for single character input. This puts the terminal in a mode usually
referred to as ``raw'' mode.
The prototype for the function is:
int SLang_init_tty (int abort_char, int flow_ctrl, int opost);
It takes three parameters that are used to specify how the terminal is
to be initialized.
The first parameter, abort_char, is used to specify the interrupt
character (SIGINT). Under MSDOS, this value corresponds to the scan
code of the character that will be used to generate the interrupt. For
example, under MSDOS, 34 should be used to make Ctrl-G generate an
interrupt signal since 34 is the scan code for G. On other systems,
the value of abort_char will simply be the ascii value of the control
character that will be used to generate the interrupt signal, e.g., 7
for Ctrl-G. If -1 is passed, the interrupt character will not be
changed.
Pressing the interrupt character specified by the first argument will
generate a signal (SIGINT) that may or not be caught by the
application. It is up to the application to catch this signal. S-Lang
provides the function Slang_set_abort_signal to make it easy to
facilitate this task.
The second parameter is used to specify whether or not flow control
should be used. If this parameter is zero, flow control is enabled.
If the value is positive, flow control will be disabled. Disabling
flow control is necessary to pass certain characters to the
application (e.g., Ctrl-S and Ctrl-Q). Otherwise, the value is
negative and the flow control behavior will be inherited from the
terminal. The latter interpretation was added to version 2.3.0 of the
library; earlier versions disabled flow control for both positive and
negative values of this parameter. For some systems such as MSDOS,
this parameter is meaningless.
The third parameter, opost, is used to turn output processing on or
off. If opost is zero, output processing is not turned on otherwise,
output processing is turned on.
The SLang_init_tty function returns -1 upon failure. In addition,
after it returns, the S-Lang global variable SLang_TT_Baud_Rate will
be set to the baud rate of the terminal if this value can be
determined.
Example:
if (-1 == SLang_init_tty (7, 0, 0)) /* For MSDOS, use 34 as scan code */
{
fprintf (stderr, "Unable to initialize the terminal.\n");
exit (1);
}
SLang_set_abort_signal (NULL);
Here the terminal is initialized such that flow control and output
processing are turned off. In addition, the character Ctrl-G (-- For
MSDOS systems, use the scan code 34 instead of 7 for Ctrl-G--) has
been specified to be the interrupt character. The function
SLang_set_abort_signal is used to install the default S-Lang interrupt
signal handler.
6.2. Resetting the Keyboard Interface
The function SLang_reset_tty must be called to reset the terminal to
the state it was in before the call to SLang_init_tty. The prototype
for this function is:
void SLang_reset_tty (void);
Usually this function is only called before the program exits. How-
ever, if the program is suspended it should also be called just before
suspension.
6.3. Initializing the SLkp Routines
Extra initialization of the higher-level SLkp functions are required
because they are layered on top of the lower level routines. Since the
SLkp_getkey function is able to process function and arrow keys in a
terminal independent manner, it is necessary to call the
SLtt_get_terminfo function to get information about the escape
character sequences that the terminal's function keys send. Once that
information is available, the SLkp_init function can construct the
proper keymaps to process the escape sequences.
This part of the initialization process for an application using this
interface will look something like:
SLtt_get_terminfo ();
if (-1 == SLkp_init ())
{
SLang_doerror ("SLkp_init failed.");
exit (1);
}
if (-1 == SLang_init_tty (-1, 0, 1))
{
SLang_doerror ("SLang_init_tty failed.");
exit (1);
}
It is important to check the return status of the SLkp_init function
which can failed if it cannot allocate enough memory for the keymap.
6.4. Setting the Interrupt Handler
The function SLang_set_abort_signal may be used to associate an
interrupt handler with the interrupt character that was previously
specified by the SLang_init_tty function call. The prototype for this
function is:
void SLang_set_abort_signal (void (*)(int));
This function returns nothing and takes a single parameter which is a
pointer to a function taking an integer value and returning void. If a
NULL pointer is passed, the default S-Lang interrupt handler will be
used. The S-Lang default interrupt handler under Unix looks like:
static void default_sigint (int sig)
{
SLsignal_intr (SIGINT, default_sigint);
SLKeyBoard_Quit = 1;
if (SLang_Ignore_User_Abort == 0)
SLang_set_error (SL_UserBreak_Error);
}
It simply sets the global variable SLKeyBoard_Quit to one and if the
variable SLang_Ignore_User_Abort is non-zero, the error state is set
to indicate a user break condition. (The function SLsignal_intr is
similar to the standard C signal function except that it will inter-
rupt system calls. Some may not like this behavior and may wish to
call this SLang_set_abort_signal with a different handler.)
Although the function expressed above is specific to Unix, the
analogous routines for other operating systems are equivalent in
functionality even though the details of the implementation may vary
drastically (e.g., under MSDOS, the hardware keyboard interrupt int 9h
is hooked).
6.5. Reading Keyboard Input with SLang_getkey
After initializing the keyboard via SLang_init_tty, the S-Lang
function SLang_getkey may be used to read characters from the terminal
interface. In addition, the function SLang_input_pending may be used
to determine whether or not keyboard input is available to be read.
These functions have prototypes:
unsigned int SLang_getkey (void);
int SLang_input_pending (int tsecs);
The SLang_getkey function returns a single character from the termi-
nal. Upon failure, it returns 0xFFFF. If the interrupt character spec-
ified by the SLang_init_tty function is pressed while this function is
called, the function will return the value of the interrupt character
and set the S-Lang global variable SLKeyBoard_Quit to a non-zero
value. In addition, if the default S-Lang interrupt handler has been
specified by a NULL argument to the SLang_set_abort_signal function,
the error state of the library will be set to SL_UserBreak_Error un-
less the variable SLang_Ignore_User_Abort is non-zero.
The SLang_getkey function waits until input is available to be read.
The SLang_input_pending function may be used to determine whether or
not input is ready. It takes a single parameter that indicates the
amount of time to wait for input before returning with information
regarding the availability of input. This parameter has units of one
tenth (1/10) of a second, i.e., to wait one second, the value of the
parameter should be 10. Passing a value of zero causes the function to
return right away. SLang_input_pending returns a positive integer if
input is available or zero if input is not available. It will return
-1 if an error occurs.
Here is a simple example that reads keys from the terminal until one
presses Ctrl-G or until 5 seconds have gone by with no input:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <slang.h>
int main ()
{
int abort_char = 7; /* For MSDOS, use 34 as scan code */
unsigned int ch;
if (-1 == SLang_init_tty (abort_char, 0, 1))
{
fprintf (stderr, "Unable to initialize the terminal.\n");
exit (-1);
}
SLang_set_abort_signal (NULL);
while (1)
{
fputs ("\nPress any key. To quit, press Ctrl-G: ", stdout);
fflush (stdout);
if (SLang_input_pending (50) == 0) /* 50/10 seconds */
{
fputs ("Waited too long! Bye\n", stdout);
break;
}
ch = SLang_getkey ();
if (SLang_get_error () == SL_UserBreak_Error)
{
fputs ("Ctrl-G pressed! Bye\n", stdout);
break;
}
putc ((int) ch, stdout);
}
SLang_reset_tty ();
return 0;
}
6.6. Reading Keyboard Input with SLkp_getkey
Unlike the low-level function SLang_getkey, the SLkp_getkey function
can read a multi-character sequence associated with function keys. The
SLkp_getkey function uses SLang_getkey and S-Lang's keymap facility to
process escape sequences. It returns a single integer which describes
the key that was pressed:
int SLkp_getkey (void);
That is, the SLkp_getkey function simple provides a mapping between
keys and integers. In this context the integers are called keysyms.
For single character input such as generated by the a key on the
keyboard, the function returns the character that was generated, e.g.,
'a'. For single characters, SLkp_getkey will always return an keysym
whose value ranges from 0 to 256. For keys that generate multiple
character sequences, e.g., a function or arrow key, the function
returns an keysym whose value is greater that 256. The actual values
of these keysyms are represented as macros defined in the slang.h
include file. For example, the up arrow key corresponds to the keysym
whose value is SL_KEY_UP.
Since it is possible for the user to enter a character sequence that
does not correspond to any key. If this happens, the special keysym
SL_KEY_ERR will be returned.
Here is an example of how SLkp_getkey may be used by a file viewer:
switch (SLkp_getkey ())
{
case ' ':
case SL_KEY_NPAGE:
next_page ();
break;
case 'b':
case SL_KEY_PPAGE:
previous_page ();
break;
case '\r':
case SL_KEY_DOWN:
next_line ();
break;
.
.
case SL_KEY_ERR:
default:
SLtt_beep ();
}
Unlike its lower-level counterpart, SLang_getkey, there do not yet
exist any functions in the library that are capable of ``ungetting''
keysyms. In particular, the SLang_ungetkey function will not work.
6.7. Buffering Input
S-Lang has several functions pushing characters back onto the input
stream to be read again later by SLang_getkey. It should be noted that
none of the above functions are designed to push back keysyms read by
the SLkp_getkey function. These functions are declared as follows:
void SLang_ungetkey (unsigned char ch);
void SLang_ungetkey_string (unsigned char *buf, int buflen);
void SLang_buffer_keystring (unsigned char *buf, int buflen);
SLang_ungetkey is the most simple of the three functions. It takes a
single character a pushes it back on to the input stream. The next
call to SLang_getkey will return this character. This function may be
used to peek at the character to be read by first reading it and then
putting it back.
SLang_ungetkey_string has the same function as SLang_ungetkey except
that it is able to push more than one character back onto the input
stream. Since this function can push back null (ascii 0) characters,
the number of characters to push is required as one of the parameters.
The last of these three functions, SLang_buffer_keystring can handle
more than one charater but unlike the other two, it places the
characters at the end of the keyboard buffer instead of at the
beginning.
Note that the use of each of these three functions will cause
SLang_input_pending to return right away with a non-zero value.
Finally, the S-Lang keyboard interface includes the function
SLang_flush_input with prototype
void SLang_flush_input (void);
It may be used to discard all input.
Here is a simple example that looks to see what the next key to be
read is if one is available:
int peek_key ()
{
int ch;
if (SLang_input_pending (0) == 0) return -1;
ch = SLang_getkey ();
SLang_ungetkey (ch);
return ch;
}
6.8. Global Variables
Although the following S-Lang global variables have already been
mentioned earlier, they are gathered together here for completeness.
int SLang_Ignore_User_Abort; If non-zero, pressing the interrupt
character will not result in the libraries error state set to
SL_UserBreak_Error.
volatile int SLKeyBoard_Quit; This variable is set to a non-zero value
when the interrupt character is pressed. If the interrupt character is
pressed when SLang_getkey is called, the interrupt character will be
returned from SLang_getkey.
int SLang_TT_Baud_Rate; On systems which support it, this variable is
set to the value of the terminal's baud rate after the call to
SLang_init_tty.
7. Readline Interface
The S-Lang library includes simple but capable readline functionality
in its SLrline layer. The SLrline routines provide a simple mechanism
for an application to get prompted input from a user with command line
editing, completions, and history recall.
The use of the SLrline routines will be illustrated with a few simple
examples. All of the examples given in this section may be found in
the file demo/rline.c in the S-Lang source code distribution. For
clarity, the code shown below omits most error checking.
7.1. Introduction
The first example simply reads input from the user until the user
enters quit:
SLrline_Type *rl;
SLang_init_tty (-1, 0, 1);
rl = SLrline_open (80, SL_RLINE_BLINK_MATCH);
while (1)
{
char *line;
unsigned int len;
line = SLrline_read_line (rl, "prompt>", &len);
if (line == NULL) break;
if (0 == strcmp (line, "quit"))
{
SLfree (line);
break;
}
(void) fprintf (stdout, "\nRead %d bytes: %s\n", strlen(line), line);
SLfree (line);
}
SLrline_close (rl);
SLang_reset_tty ();
In this example, the SLtt interface functions SLang_init_tty and
SLang_reset_tty functions have been used to open and close the termi-
nal for reading input. By default, the SLrline functions use the
SLang_getkey function to read characters and assume that the terminal
has been properly initialized before use.
The SLrline_open function was used to create an instance of an
SLrline_Type object. The function takes two arguments: and edit window
display width (80 above), and a set of flags. In this case, the
SL_RLINE_BLINK_MATCH flags has been used to turn on parenthesis
blinking. Once finished, the SLrline_Type object must be freed using
the SLrline_close function.
The actual reading of the line occurs in the SLrline_read_line
function, which takes an SLrline_Type instance and a string
representing the prompt to be used. The line itself is returned as a
malloced char * and must be freed using the SLfree function after
used. The length (in bytes) of the line is returned via the parameter
list.
If an end-of-file character (^D on Unix) was entered at the beginning
of a line, the SLrline_read_line function will return NULL. However,
it also return NULL if an error of some sort was encountered. The only
way to tell the difference between these two conditions is to call
SLang_get_error.
The above code fragment did not provide for any sort of SIGINT
handling. Without such a provision, pressing ^C at the prompt could be
enough to kill the application. This is especially undesirable if one
wants to press ^C to abort the call to SLrline_read_line. The function
example_2 in demo/rline.c shows code to handle this situation as well
as distinguish between EOF and other errors.
7.2. Interpreter Interface
SLrline features such as command-line completion, vi-emulation, and so
on are implemented through callbacks or hooks from the SLrline
functions to the S-Lang interpreter. Hence, this functionality is only
available to applications that make use of the interpreter.
TBD...
8. Screen Management
The S-Lang library provides two interfaces to terminal independent
routines for manipulating the display on a terminal. The highest level
interface, known as the SLsmg interface is discussed in this section.
It provides high level screen management functions for manipulating
the display in an optimal manner and is similar in spirit to the
curses library. The lowest level interface, or the SLtt interface, is
used by the SLsmg routines to actually perform the task of writing to
the display. This interface is discussed in another section. Like the
keyboard routines, the SLsmg routines are platform independent and
work the same on MSDOS, OS/2, Unix, and VMS.
The screen management, or SLsmg, routines are initialized by function
SLsmg_init_smg. Once initialized, the application uses various SLsmg
functions to write to a virtual display. This does not cause the
physical terminal display to be updated immediately. The physical
display is updated to look like the virtual display only after a call
to the function SLsmg_refresh. Before exiting, the application using
these routines is required to call SLsmg_reset_smg to reset the
display system.
The following subsections explore S-Lang's screen management system in
greater detail.
8.1. Initialization
The function SLsmg_init_smg must be called before any other SLsmg
function can be used. It has the simple prototype:
int SLsmg_init_smg (void);
It returns zero if successful or -1 if it cannot allocate space for
the virtual display.
For this routine to properly initialize the virtual display, the
capabilities of the terminal must be known as well as the size of the
physical display. For these reasons, the lower level SLtt routines
come into play. In particular, before the first call to
SLsmg_init_smg, the application is required to call the function
SLtt_get_terminfo before calling SLsmg_init_smg.
The SLtt_get_terminfo function sets the global variables
SLtt_Screen_Rows and SLtt_Screen_Cols to the values appropriate for
the terminal. It does this by calling the SLtt_get_screen_size
function to query the terminal driver for the appropriate values for
these variables. From this point on, it is up to the application to
maintain the correct values for these variables by calling the
SLtt_get_screen_size function whenever the display size changes, e.g.,
in response to a SIGWINCH signal. Finally, if the application is going
to read characters from the keyboard, it is also a good idea to
initialize the keyboard routines at this point as well.
8.2. Resetting SLsmg
Before the program exits or suspends, the function SLsmg_reset_smg
should be called to shutdown the display system. This function has the
prototype
void SLsmg_reset_smg (void);
This will deallocate any memory allocated for the virtual screen and
reset the terminal's display.
Basically, a program that uses the SLsmg screen management functions
and S-Lang's keyboard interface will look something like:
#include <slang.h>
int main ()
{
SLtt_get_terminfo ();
SLang_init_tty (-1, 0, 0);
SLsmg_init_smg ();
/* do stuff .... */
SLsmg_reset_smg ();
SLang_reset_tty ();
return 0;
}
If this program is compiled and run, all it will do is clear the
screen and position the cursor at the bottom of the display. In the
following sections, other SLsmg functions will be introduced which may
be used to make this simple program do much more.
8.3. Handling Screen Resize Events
The function SLsmg_reinit_smg is designed to be used in conjunction
with resize events.
Under Unix-like operating systems, when the size of the display
changes, the application will be sent a SIGWINCH signal. To properly
handle this signal, the SLsmg routines must be reinitialized to use
the new display size. This may be accomplished by calling
SLtt_get_screen_size to get the new size, followed by SLsmg_reinit_smg
to reinitialize the SLsmg interface to use the new size. Keep in mind
that these routines should not be called from within the signal
handler. The following code illustrates the main ideas involved in
handling such events:
static volatile int Screen_Size_Changed;
static sigwinch_handler (int sig)
{
Screen_Size_Changed = 1;
SLsignal (SIGWINCH, sigwinch_handler);
}
int main (int argc, char **argv)
{
SLsignal (SIGWINCH, sigwinch_handler);
SLsmg_init_smg ();
.
.
/* Now enter main loop */
while (not_done)
{
if (Screen_Size_Changed)
{
SLtt_get_screen_size ();
SLsmg_reinit_smg ();
redraw_display ();
}
.
.
}
return 0;
}
8.4. SLsmg Functions
In the previous sections, functions for initializing and shutting down
the SLsmg routines were discussed. In this section, the rest of the
SLsmg functions are presented. These functions act only on the virtual
display. The physical display is updated when the SLsmg_refresh
function is called and not until that time. This function has the
simple prototype:
void SLsmg_refresh (void);
8.4.1. Positioning the cursor
The SLsmg_gotorc function is used to position the cursor at a given
row and column. The prototype for this function is:
void SLsmg_gotorc (int row, int col);
The origin of the screen is at the top left corner and is given the
coordinate (0, 0), i.e., the top row of the screen corresponds to row
= 0 and the first column corresponds to col = 0. The last row of the
screen is given by row = SLtt_Screen_Rows - 1.
It is possible to change the origin of the coordinate system by using
the function SLsmg_set_screen_start with prototype:
void SLsmg_set_screen_start (int *r, int *c);
This function takes pointers to the new values of the first row and
first column. It returns the previous values by modifying the values
of the integers at the addresses specified by the parameter list. A
NULL pointer may be passed to indicate that the origin is to be set to
its initial value of 0. For example,
int r = 10;
SLsmg_set_screen_start (&r, NULL);
sets the origin to (10, 0) and after the function returns, the vari-
able r will have the value of the previous row origin.
8.4.2. Writing to the Display
SLsmg has several routines for outputting text to the virtual display.
The following points should be understood:
o The text is output at the position of the cursor of the virtual
display and the cursor is advanced to the position that corresponds
to the end of the text.
o Text does not wrap at the boundary of the display--- it is
trucated. This behavior seems to be more useful in practice since
most programs that would use screen management tend to be line
oriented.
o Control characters are displayed in a two character sequence
representation with ^ as the first character. That is, Ctrl-X is
output as ^X.
o The behavior of the newline character depends upon the value of the
SLsmg_Newline_Behavior variable. It may be set to any one of the
following values:
SLSMG_NEWLINE_IGNORED : If a newline character is encountered when
writing a string to the virtual display, the characters in the
string following the newline character will not be written. In
other words, the newline character will act like a string
termination character. This is the default setting for the
SLsmg_Newline_Behavior.
SLSMG_NEWLINE_MOVES : If a newline character is when writing to the
virtual display, the following characters will be written to the
beginning of the next row.
SLSMG_NEWLINE_SCROLLS : When set to this value and a newline
character is output at the bottom of the virtual display, the
display will scroll up. Otherwise the behavior will be the same as
that of SLSMG_NEWLINE_MOVES.
SLSMG_NEWLINE_PRINTABLE : When set to this value, a newline
character will be printed as the two characters sequence ^J.
Although the some of the above items might appear to be too
restrictive, in practice this is not seem to be the case. In fact, the
design of the output routines was influenced by their actual use and
modified to simplify the code of the application utilizing them.
void SLsmg_write_char (char ch);
Write a single character to the virtual display.
void SLsmg_write_nchars (char *str, int len);
Write len characters pointed to by str to the virtual display.
void SLsmg_write_string (char *str);
Write the null terminated string given by pointer str to the
virtual display. This function is a wrapper around
SLsmg_write_nchars.
void SLsmg_write_nstring (char *str, int n);
The purpose of this function is to write a null terminated
string to a field that is at most n cells wide. Each double-wide
character in the string will use two cells. If the string is not
big enough to fill the n cells, the rest of the cells will be
filled with space characters. This function is a wrapper around
SLsmg_write_wrapped_string.
void SLsmg_write_wrapped_string(SLuchar_Type *str, int r, int c,
unsigned int dr, unsigned int dc, int fill)
The purpose of this function is to write a string str to a box
defined by rows and columns satisfying r<=row<r+dc and
c<=column<c+dc. The string will be wrapped at the column
boundaries of the box and truncated if its size exceeds to size
of the box. If the total size of the string is less than that of
the box, and the fill parameter is non-zero, then the rest of
the cells in the box will be filled with space characters.
Currently the wrapping algorithm is very simple and knows
nothing about word boundaries.
void SLsmg_printf (char *fmt, ...);
This function is similar to printf except that it writes to the
SLsmg virtual display.
void SLsmg_vprintf (char *, va_list);
Like SLsmg_printf but uses a variable argument list.
8.4.3. Erasing the Display
The following functions may be used to fill portions of the display
with blank characters. The attributes of blank character are the
current attributes. (See below for a discussion of character
attributes)
void SLsmg_erase_eol (void);
Erase line from current position to the end of the line.
void SLsmg_erase_eos (void);
Erase from the current position to the end of the screen.
void SLsmg_cls (void);
Clear the entire virtual display.
8.4.4. Setting Character Attributes
Character attributes define the visual characteristics the character
possesses when it is displayed. Visual characteristics include the
foreground and background colors as well as other attributes such as
blinking, bold, and so on. Since SLsmg takes a different approach to
this problem than other screen management libraries an explanation of
this approach is given here. This approach has been motivated by
experience with programs that require some sort of screen management.
Most programs that use SLsmg are composed of specific textual objects
or objects made up of line drawing characters. For example, consider
an application with a menu bar with drop down menus. The menus might
be enclosed by some sort of frame or perhaps a shadow. The basic idea
is to associate an integer to each of the objects (e.g., menu bar,
shadow, current menu item, etc.) and create a mapping from the integer
to the set of attributes. In the terminology of SLsmg, the integer is
simply called an object.
For example, the menu bar might be associated with the object 1, the
drop down menu could be object 2, the shadow could be object 3, and so
on.
The range of values for the object integer is restricted from 0 up to
and including 255 on all systems except MSDOS where the maximum
allowed integer is 15 (-- This difference is due to memory constraints
imposed by MSDOS. This restriction might be removed in a future
version of the library.--) . The object numbered zero should not be
regarding as an object at all. Rather it should be regarded as all
other objects that have not explicitly been given an object number.
SLsmg, or more precisely SLtt, refers to the attributes of this
special object as the default or normal attributes.
The SLsmg routines know nothing about the mapping of the color to the
attributes associated with the color. The actual mapping takes place
at a lower level in the SLtt routines. Hence, to map an object to the
actual set of attributes requires a call to any of the following SLtt
routines:
void SLtt_set_color (int obj, char *name, char *fg, char *bg);
void SLtt_set_color_object (int obj, SLtt_Char_Type attr);
void SLtt_set_mono (int obj, char *, SLtt_Char_Type attr);
Only the first of these routines will be discussed briefly here. The
latter two functions allow more fine control over the object to attri-
bute mapping (such as assigning a ``blink'' attribute to the object).
For a more full explanation on all of these routines see the section
about the SLtt interface.
The SLtt_set_color function takes four parameters. The first
parameter, obj, is simply the integer of the object for which
attributes are to be assigned. The second parameter is currently
unused by these routines. The third and forth parameters, fg and bg,
are the names of the foreground and background color to be used
associated with the object. The strings that one can use for the third
and fourth parameters can be any one of the 16 colors:
"black" "gray"
"red" "brightred"
"green" "brightgreen"
"brown" "yellow"
"blue" "brightblue"
"magenta" "brightmagenta"
"cyan" "brightcyan"
"lightgray" "white"
The value of the foreground parameter fg can be anyone of these six-
teen colors. However, on most terminals, the background color will can
only be one of the colors listed in the first column (-- This is also
true on the Linux console. However, it need not be the case and hope-
fully the designers of Linux will someday remove this restriction.--)
.
Of course not all terminals are color terminals. If the S-Lang global
variable SLtt_Use_Ansi_Colors is non-zero, the terminal is assumed to
be a color terminal. The SLtt_get_terminfo will try to determine
whether or not the terminal supports colors and set this variable
accordingly. It does this by looking for the capability in the
terminfo/termcap database. Unfortunately many Unix databases lack this
information and so the SLtt_get_terminfo routine will check whether or
not the environment variable COLORTERM exists. If it exists, the
terminal will be assumed to support ANSI colors and
SLtt_Use_Ansi_Colors will be set to one. Nevertheless, the
application should provide some other mechanism to set this variable,
e.g., via a command line parameter.
When the SLtt_Use_Ansi_Colors variable is zero, all objects with
numbers greater than one will be displayed in inverse video (-- This
behavior can be modified by using the SLtt_set_mono function call.--)
.
With this background, the SLsmg functions for setting the character
attributes can now be defined. These functions simply set the object
attributes that are to be assigned to subsequent characters written to
the virtual display. For this reason, the new attribute is called the
current attribute.
void SLsmg_set_color (int obj);
Set the current attribute to those of object obj.
void SLsmg_normal_video (void);
This function is equivalent to SLsmg_set_color (0).
void SLsmg_reverse_video (void);
This function is equivalent to SLsmg_set_color (1). On
monochrome terminals, it is equivalent to setting the subsequent
character attributes to inverse video.
Unfortunately there does not seem to be a standard way for the
application or, in particular, the library to determine which color
will be used by the terminal for the default background. Such
information would be useful in initializing the foreground and
background colors associated with the default color object (0). For
this reason, it is up to the application to provide some means for the
user to indicate what these colors are for the particular terminal
setup. To facilitate this, the SLtt_get_terminfo function checks for
the existence of the COLORFGBG environment variable. If this variable
exists, its value will be used to initialize the colors associated
with the default color object. Specifically, the value is assumed to
consist of a foreground color name and a background color name
separated by a semicolon. For example, if the value of COLORFGBG is
lightgray;blue, the default color object will be initialized to
represent a lightgray foreground upon a blue background.
8.4.5. Lines and Alternate Character Sets
The S-Lang screen management library also includes routines for
turning on and turning off alternate character sets. This is
especially useful for drawing horizontal and vertical lines.
void SLsmg_set_char_set (int flag);
If flag is non-zero, subsequent write functions will use
characters from the alternate character set. If flag is zero,
the default, or, ordinary character set will be used.
void SLsmg_draw_hline (int len);
Draw a horizontal line from the current position to the column
that is len characters to the right.
void SLsmg_draw_vline (int len);
Draw a horizontal line from the current position to the row that
is len rows below.
void SLsmg_draw_box (int r, int c, int dr, int dc);
Draw a box whose upper right corner is at row r and column c.
The box spans dr rows and dc columns. The current position will
be left at row r and column c.
8.4.6. Miscellaneous Functions
void SLsmg_touch_lines (int r, int n);
Mark screen rows numbered r, r + 1, ... r + (n - 1) as modified.
When SLsmg_refresh is called, these rows will be completely
redrawn.
int SLsmg_char_at(SLsmg_Char_Type *ch);
Returns the character and its attributes at the current
position. The SLsmg_Char_Type object is a structure
representing the character cell:
#define SLSMG_MAX_CHARS_PER_CELL 5
typedef struct
{
unsigned int nchars;
SLwchar_Type wchars[SLSMG_MAX_CHARS_PER_CELL];
SLsmg_Color_Type color;
}
SLsmg_Char_Type;
Normally the value of the nchars field will be 1 to indicate that
the character contains precisely one character whose value is given
by the zeroth element of the wchars array of the structure. The
value of nchars will be greater than one if the character cell also
contains so-called Unicode combining characters. The combining
characters are given by the elements 1 through nchars-1 of the
wchars array. If nchars is 0, then the character cell represents
the second half of a double-wide character.
The color field repesents both the color of the character cell and
the alternate character set setting of the cell. This value may be
bitwise-anded with SLSMG_COLOR_MASK to obtain the cell's color, and
bitwise-anded with SLSMG_ACS_MASK to determine whether or not the
alternate-character set setting is in effect for the cell (zero or
non-zero).
8.5. Variables
The following S-Lang global variables are used by the SLsmg interface.
Some of these have been previously discussed.
int SLtt_Screen_Rows; int SLtt_Screen_Cols; The number of rows and
columns of the physical display. If either of these numbers changes,
the functions SLsmg_reset_smg and SLsmg_init_smg should be called
again so that the SLsmg routines can re-adjust to the new size.
int SLsmg_Tab_Width; Set this variable to the tab width that will be
used when expanding tab characters. The default is 8.
int SLsmg_Display_Eight_Bit; This variable determines how characters
with the high bit set are to be output. Specifically, a character with
the high bit set with a value greater than or equal to this value is
output as is; otherwise, it will be output in a 7-bit representation.
The default value for this variable is 128 for MSDOS and 160 for other
systems (ISO-Latin). In UTF-8 mode, the value of this variable is 0.
int SLtt_Use_Ansi_Colors; If this value is non-zero, the terminal is
assumed to support ANSI colors otherwise it is assumed to be
monochrome. The default is 0.
int SLtt_Term_Cannot_Scroll; If this value is zero, the SLsmg will
attempt to scroll the physical display to optimize the update. If it
is non-zero, the screen management routines will not perform this
optimization. For some applications, this variable should be set to
zero. The default value is set by the SLtt_get_terminfo function.
8.6. Hints for using SLsmg
This section discusses some general design issues that one must face
when writing an application that requires some sort of screen
management.
9. Signal Functions
Almost all non-trivial programs must worry about signals. This is
especially true for programs that use the S-Lang terminal input/output
and screen management routines. Unfortunately, there is no fixed way
to handle signals; otherwise, the Unix kernel would take care of all
issues regarding signals and the application programmer would never
have to worry about them. For this reason, none of the routines in the
S-Lang library catch signals; however, some of the routines block the
delivery of signals during crucial moments. It is up to the
application programmer to install handlers for the various signals of
interest.
If the application makes use of the interpreter, then a signal handler
for SIGINT should be installed to allow the user to break out of the
interpreter via, e.g., Ctrl-C. In order for this to work, the signal
handler should call SLang_set_error to generate a SL_UserBreak_Error
exception, i.e.,
void sigint_handler (int sig)
{
if (SLang_Ignore_User_Abort == 0)
SLang_set_error (SL_UserBreak_Error);
}
Applications that use the tty getkey routines or the screen management
routines must worry about signals such as:
SIGINT interrupt
SIGTSTP stop
SIGQUIT quit
SIGTTOU background write
SIGTTIN background read
SIGWINCH window resize
It is important that handlers be established for these signals while
the either the SLsmg routines or the getkey routines are initialized.
The SLang_init_tty, SLang_reset_tty, SLsmg_init_smg, and SLsmg_re-
set_smg functions block these signals from occurring while they are
being called.
Since a signal can be delivered at any time, it is important for the
signal handler to call only functions that can be called from a signal
handler. This usually means that such function must be re-entrant. In
particular, the SLsmg routines are not re-entrant; hence, they should
not be called when a signal is being processed unless the application
can ensure that the signal was not delivered while an SLsmg function
was called. This statement applies to many other functions such as
malloc, or, more generally, any function that calls malloc. The upshot
is that the signal handler should not attempt to do too much except
set a global variable for the application to look at while not in a
signal handler.
The S-Lang library provides two functions for blocking and unblocking
the above signals:
int SLsig_block_signals (void);
int SLsig_unblock_signals (void);
It should be noted that for every call to SLsig_block_signals, a cor-
responding call should be made to SLsig_unblock_signals, e.g.,
void update_screen ()
{
SLsig_block_signals ();
/* Call SLsmg functions */
.
.
SLsig_unblock_signals ();
}
See demo/pager.c for examples.
10. Searching Functions
The S-Lang library incorporates two types of searches: Regular
expression pattern matching and ordinary searching.
10.1. Simple Searches
S-Lang's SLsearch interface functions a convenient interface to the
famous Boyer-Moore fast searching algrothim. The searches can go in
either a forward or backward direction and and may be performed with
or without regard to case. Moreover, UTF-8 encoded strings are fully
supported by the interface.
10.2. Regular Expressions
!!! No documentation available yet !!!
A. S-Lang 2 API NEWS and UPGRADE information
The S-Lang API underwent a number of changes for version 2. In
particular, the following interfaces have been affected:
SLsmg
SLregexp
SLsearch
SLrline
SLprep
slang interpreter modules
Detailed information about these changes is given below. Other changes
include:
o UTF-8 encoded strings are now supported at both the C library level
and the interpreter.
o Error handling by the interpreter has been rewritten to support
try/catch style exception. Applications may also define
application-specific error codes.
o The library may be compiled with large-file-support.
See the relevant chapters in this manual for more information.
A.1. SLang_Error
The SLang_Error variable is nolonger part of the API. Change code such
as
SLang_Error = foo;
if (SLang_Error == bar) ...
to
SLang_set_error (foo);
if (bar == SLang_get_error ()) ...
A.2. SLsmg/SLtt Functions
The changes to these functions were dictated by the new UTF-8 support.
For the most part, the changes should be transparent but some
functions and variables have been changed.
o SLtt_Use_Blink_For_ACS is nolonger supported, nor necessary I think
only DOSEMU uses this.
o Prototypes for SLsmg_draw_object and SLsmg_write_char were changed
to use wide characters (SLwchar_Type).
o SLsmg_Char_Type was changed from an unsigned short to a structure.
This change was necessary in order to support combining characters
and double width unicode characters. This change may affect the use
of the following functions:
SLsmg_char_at
SLsmg_read_raw
SLsmg_write_raw
SLsmg_write_color_chars
o The SLSMG_BUILD_CHAR macro has been removed. The
SLSMG_EXTRACT_CHAR macro will continue to work as long as combining
characters are not present.
o The prototype for SLsmg_char_at was changed to
int SLsmg_char_at (SLsmg_Char_Type *);
A.3. SLsearch Functions
SLsearch_Type is now an opaque type. Code such as
SLsearch_Type st;
SLsearch_init (string, 1, 0, &st);
.
.
s = SLsearch (buf, bufmax, &st);
which searches forward in buf for string must be changed to
SLsearch_Type *st = SLsearch_open (string, SLSEARCH_CASELESS);
if (st == NULL)
return;
.
.
s = SLsearch_forward (st, buf, bufmax);
.
.
SLsearch_close (st);
A.4. Regular Expression Functions
The slang v1 regular expression API has been redesigned in order to
facilitate the incorporation of third party regular expression
engines.
New functions include:
SLregexp_compile
SLregexp_free
SLregexp_match
SLregexp_nth_match
SLregexp_get_hints
The plan is to migrate to the use of the PCRE regular expressions for
version 2.2. As such, you may find it convenient to adopt the PCRE
library now instead of updating to the changed S-Lang API.
A.5. Readline Functions
The readline interface has changed in order to make it easier to use.
Using it now is as simple as:
SLrline_Type *rli;
rli = SLrline_open (SLtt_Screen_Cols, flags);
buf = SLrline_read_line (rli, prompt, &len);
/* Use buf */
.
.
SLfree (buf);
SLrline_close (rli);
See how it is used in slsh/readline.c.
A.6. Preprocessor Interface
SLPreprocess_Type was renamed to SLprep_Type and made opaque. New
functions include:
SLprep_new
SLprep_delete
SLprep_set_flags
SLprep_set_comment
SLprep_set_prefix
SLprep_set_exists_hook
SLprep_set_eval_hook
If you currently use:
SLPreprocess_Type pt;
SLprep_open_prep (&pt);
.
.
SLprep_close_prep (&pt);
Then change it to:
SLprep_Type *pt;
pt = SLprep_new ();
.
.
SLprep_delete (pt);
A.7. Functions dealing with the interpreter C API
o SLang_pop_double has been changed to be more like the other
SLang_pop_* functions. Now, it may be used as:
double x;
if (-1 == SLang_pop_double (&x))
.
.
o All the functions that previously took an "unsigned char" to
specify a slang data type have changed to require an SLtype.
Previously, SLtype was typedefed to be an unsigned char, but now it
is an int.
o The SLang_Class_Type object is now an opaque type. If you were
previously accessing its fields directly, then you will have to
change the code to use one of the accessor functions.
A.8. Modules
o In order to support the loading of a module into multiple
namespaces, a module's init function may be called more than once.
See modules/README for more information.
o The init_<module>_module function is no longer supported because it
did not support namespaces. Use the init_<module>_module_ns
function instead.
B. Copyright
The S-Lang library is distributed under the terms of the GNU General
Public License.
B.1. The GNU Public License
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Version 2, June 1991
Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
Preamble
The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom
to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is
intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free soft-
ware--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This Gen-
eral Public License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation's
software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it.
(Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by the GNU
Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to your pro-
grams, too.
When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if
you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their
rights.
We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
(2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
distribute and/or modify the software.
Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on,
we want its recipients to know that what they have is not the
original, so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect
on the original authors' reputations.
Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at
all.
The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
modification follow.
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains a
notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed un-
der the terms of this General Public License. The "Program", below,
refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program"
means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:
that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it, ei-
ther verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another
language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in
the term "modification".) Each licensee is addressed as "you".
Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of
running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program
(independent of having been made by running the Program). Whether
that is true depends on what the Program does.
1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source
code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously
and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice
and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to
this License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other
recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the
Program.
You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a
fee.
2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of
it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and distribute
such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 above,
provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
parties under the terms of this License.
c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an
announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under
these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this
License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but
does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
the Program is not required to print an announcement.)
These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If identifi-
able sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can
be reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves,
then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when
you distribute them as separate works. But when you distribute the
same sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program,
the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License,
whose permissions for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and
thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.
Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to
exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
collective works based on the Program.
In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
the scope of this License.
3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
customarily used for software interchange; or,
c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is
allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
received the program in object code or executable form with such
an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source
code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to con-
trol compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a
special exception, the source code distributed need not include any-
thing that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form)
with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operat-
ing system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself
accompanies the executable.
If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise
to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is void, and
will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However,
parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this
License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
parties remain in full compliance.
5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or
distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are
prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by
modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
the Program or works based on it.
6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further
restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
this License.
7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot
distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you
may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent
license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.
If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
circumstances.
It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
implemented by public license practices. Many people have made
generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
impose that choice.
This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
be a consequence of the rest of this License.
8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates
the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new
versions of the General Public License from time to time. Such new
versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may
differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.
Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program
specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and
"any later version", you have the option of following the terms and
conditions either of that version or of any later version published by
the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a
version number of this License, you may choose any version ever
published by the Free Software Foundation.
10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the
author to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the
Free Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we
sometimes make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the
two goals of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free
software and of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
NO WARRANTY
11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN
OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS
TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR
REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these
terms.
To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest to
attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
<one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
Copyright (C) 19yy <name of author>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper
mail.
If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
when it starts in an interactive mode:
Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 19yy name of author
Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.
The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appro-
priate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the commands
you use may be called something other than `show w' and `show c'; they
could even be mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your program.
You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or
your school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program,
if necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
`Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.
<signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989
Ty Coon, President of Vice
This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program
into proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library,
you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applica-
tions with the library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU
Library General Public License instead of this License.
B.2. The Unicode Inc. Copyright
This software makes use of the Unicode tables published by Unicode,
Inc under the following terms:
COPYRIGHT AND PERMISSION NOTICE
Copyright (c) 1991-2009 Unicode, Inc. All rights reserved. Distributed
under the Terms of Use in http://www.unicode.org/copyright.html.
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
obtaining a copy of the Unicode data files and any associated
documentation (the "Data Files") or Unicode software and any
associated documentation (the "Software") to deal in the Data Files
or Software without restriction, including without limitation the
rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, and/or sell
copies of the Data Files or Software, and to permit persons to whom
the Data Files or Software are furnished to do so, provided that (a)
the above copyright notice(s) and this permission notice appear with
all copies of the Data Files or Software, (b) both the above
copyright notice(s) and this permission notice appear in associated
documentation, and (c) there is clear notice in each modified Data
File or in the Software as well as in the documentation associated
with the Data File(s) or Software that the data or software has been
modified.
THE DATA FILES AND SOFTWARE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY
OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR HOLDERS INCLUDED IN THIS NOTICE BE LIABLE FOR
ANY CLAIM, OR ANY SPECIAL INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR ANY
DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS,
WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS
ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE
OF THE DATA FILES OR SOFTWARE.
Except as contained in this notice, the name of a copyright holder
shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale,
use or other dealings in these Data Files or Software without prior
written authorization of the copyright holder.
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