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authorErlang/OTP <[email protected]>2009-11-20 14:54:40 +0000
committerErlang/OTP <[email protected]>2009-11-20 14:54:40 +0000
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The R13B03 release.OTP_R13B03
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+<?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>
+