The R13B03 release.OTP_R13B03

1 files changed, 148 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/lib/ic/doc/src/ch_introduction.xml b/lib/ic/doc/src/ch_introduction.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..898d2a732a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/ic/doc/src/ch_introduction.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,148 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="latin1" ?>
+<!DOCTYPE chapter SYSTEM "chapter.dtd">
+
+<chapter>
+  <header>
+    <copyright>
+      <year>1998</year><year>2009</year>
+      <holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
+    </copyright>
+    <legalnotice>
+      The contents of this file are subject to the Erlang Public License,
+      Version 1.1, (the "License"); you may not use this file except in
+      compliance with the License. You should have received a copy of the
+      Erlang Public License along with this software. If not, it can be
+      retrieved online at http://www.erlang.org/.
+    
+      Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS"
+      basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See
+      the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations
+      under the License.
+    
+    </legalnotice>
+
+    <title>Using the IC Compiler</title>
+    <prepared></prepared>
+    <docno></docno>
+    <date>2002-08-02</date>
+    <rev>PB1</rev>
+    <file>ch_introduction.xml</file>
+  </header>
+
+  <section>
+    <title>Introduction</title>
+    <p>The IC application is an IDL compiler implemented in Erlang.
+      The IDL compiler generates client stubs and server skeletons.
+      Several back-ends are supported, and they fall into three main
+      groups.</p>
+    <p>The first group consists of a CORBA back-end:</p>
+    <taglist>
+      <tag>IDL to Erlang CORBA</tag>
+      <item>
+        <p>This back-end is for CORBA communication and implementation,
+          and the generated code uses the CORBA specific protocol for
+          communication between clients and servers. See the
+          <em>Orber</em> application User's Guide and manuals for
+          further details.</p>
+      </item>
+    </taglist>
+    <p>The second group consists of a simple Erlang back-end:</p>
+    <taglist>
+      <tag>IDL to plain Erlang</tag>
+      <item>
+        <p>This back-end provides a very simple Erlang client
+          interface. It can only be used within an Erlang node,
+          and the communication between client and "server" is
+          therefore in terms of ordinary function calls. </p>
+        <p>This back-end can be considered a short-circuit version of
+          the IDL to Erlang gen_server back-end (see further below).</p>
+      </item>
+    </taglist>
+    <p>The third group consists of backends for Erlang, C, and
+      Java. The communication between clients and servers is by the
+      Erlang distribution protocol, facilitated by
+      <em>erl_interface</em> and <em>jinterface</em> for C and Java,
+      respectively.</p>
+    <p>All back-ends of the third group generate code compatible with
+      the Erlang gen_server behavior protocol. Thus generated client
+      code corresponds to <c>call()</c> or <c>cast()</c> of an Erlang
+      <c>gen_server</c>. Similarly, generated server code corresponds
+      to <c>handle_call()</c> or <c>handle_cast()</c> of an Erlang
+      <c>gen_server</c>.</p>
+    <p>The back-ends of the third group are:
+      </p>
+    <taglist>
+      <tag>IDL to Erlang gen_server</tag>
+      <item>
+        <p>Client stubs and server skeletons are generated. Data types
+          are mapped according to the IDL to Erlang mapping described
+          in the <em>Orber User's Guide</em>.</p>
+        <p></p>
+      </item>
+      <tag>IDL to C client</tag>
+      <item>
+        <p>Client stubs are generated. The mapping of data types is
+          described further on in the C client part of this guide.</p>
+      </item>
+      <tag>IDL to C server</tag>
+      <item>
+        <p>Server skeletons are generated. The mapping of data types is
+          described further on in the C server part of this guide.</p>
+      </item>
+      <tag>IDL to Java</tag>
+      <item>
+        <p>Client stubs and server skeletons are generated. The mapping
+          of data types is described further on in the Java part of
+          this guide.</p>
+      </item>
+    </taglist>
+  </section>
+
+  <section>
+    <title>Compilation of IDL Files</title>
+    <p>The IC compiler is invoked by executing the generic <c>erlc</c>
+      compiler from a shell:</p>
+    <code type="none">
+%> erlc +'{be,BackEnd}' File.idl
+    </code>
+    <p>where <c>BackEnd</c> is according to the table below, and
+      <c>File.idl</c> is the IDL file to be compiled.</p>
+    <table>
+      <row>
+        <cell align="left" valign="middle"><em>Back-end</em></cell>
+        <cell align="left" valign="middle"><c>BackEnd</c>option</cell>
+      </row>
+      <row>
+        <cell align="left" valign="middle">IDL to CORBA</cell>
+        <cell align="left" valign="middle"><c>erl_corba</c></cell>
+      </row>
+      <row>
+        <cell align="left" valign="middle">IDL to CORBA template</cell>
+        <cell align="left" valign="middle"><c>erl_template</c></cell>
+      </row>
+      <row>
+        <cell align="left" valign="middle">IDL to plain Erlang</cell>
+        <cell align="left" valign="middle"><c>erl_plain</c></cell>
+      </row>
+      <row>
+        <cell align="left" valign="middle">IDL to Erlang gen_server</cell>
+        <cell align="left" valign="middle"><c>erl_genserv</c></cell>
+      </row>
+      <row>
+        <cell align="left" valign="middle">IDL to C client</cell>
+        <cell align="left" valign="middle"><c>c_client</c></cell>
+      </row>
+      <row>
+        <cell align="left" valign="middle">IDL to C server</cell>
+        <cell align="left" valign="middle"><c>c_server</c></cell>
+      </row>
+      <row>
+        <cell align="left" valign="middle">IDL to Java</cell>
+        <cell align="left" valign="middle"><c>java</c></cell>
+      </row>
+      <tcaption>Compiler back-ends and options</tcaption>
+    </table>
+    <p>For more details on IC compiler options consult the ic(3) manual page.</p>
+  </section>
+</chapter>
+