Wyvern Studios

Setting up XCTE

Requirements
Overview of folders
Setting up config files
Creating class template xml file
Running the processor on the file

Requirements XCTE requires Ruby to run. I built XCTE using Ruby version 1.8.6 on Windows Vista and also tried it on Debian with Ruby 1.8.5. I also use Netbeans 6 as my Ruby IDE(among other things) but it is not required.

Overview of folders Folders:

generated - Where XCTE places generated files, mirroring the templates directory structure
lang_profiles - Where contains xml files with language information
lib - Contails Ruby source files
nbproject - Contails Netbeans project info
templates - Where class template files must be placed

Setting up config files In the root XCFE directory there is a file called default_settings.xml. Use this file to set the author and license for generated files.

Creating class template xml file The best way to start a new template class is to grab a similar existing xml file and copy it, then modify the contents. See the lang_profiles folder for the mappings of generic language independent types to language specific types. It's best to use generic types in templates because XTCE only recognizes generic variables as primitives. Right now the following template functions are available:

C++

Plugin name	Plugin type	Description
class_standard	class	Creates a regular C++ class using available plugins
method_constructor	method	Creates a constructor(needed if default values are used with variables)
method_destructor	method	Creates an empty destructor
method_empty	method	Creates an empty method with parameters specified in the class xml file
method_equality_assign	method	Creates an equality (=) assignment operator
method_log_it	method	Creates logIt method to write class information to a stream for debugging
method_readugp	method	Example method for a template method that reads from a stream
method_writeugp	method	Example method for a template method that writes to a stream

Java

Plugin name	Plugin type	Description
class_standard	class	Creates a regular Java class using available plugins
method_constructor	method	Creates a constructor
method_empty	method	Creates an empty method with parameters specified in the class xml file
method_log_it	method	Creates logIt method to write class information to a stream for debugging

Running the processor on the file XML template files can be placed in the templates folder. The main.rb file can be executed from the command line or through Netbeans. Executing this file generates C++ and Java files in the generated folder.

See the templates folder in the download for examples

CLASS - base xml element
attributes: name

DESCRIPTION - contains text description for class

INCLUDE - contains info on an include
attributes: name(string)

VARIABLES - occurs once, contains all variables

VARIABLE - contains info on a variable
attributes: name(string), type(string), comm(string - comment), pointer(boolean), static(boolean), default(string), arrayCount(int)

COMMENT - contains info on a variable
attributes: text(string)

BR - line break

FUNCTIONS - occurs once, contains all functions

TEMPLATE_FUNCTION - tells XCTE to add a function base on this template
attributes: name(string)

EMPTY_FUNCTION - defines skeleton for an empty function
attributes: name(string)

PARAMETERS - defines skeleton for an empty function
attributes: name(string)

VARIABLE - contains info on a variable
attributes: name(string), type(string), comm(string - comment), pointer(boolean), arrayCount(int)

RETURN_VALUE - defines skeleton for an empty function
attributes: type(string), const(boolean), pointer(boolean), passby(string), arrayCount(int)

The core of XFCE is stored in the lib folder. The core loads the xml class file into an object structure, and also has files for loading language profile information. The file code_elem_class contails most of the code for loading information from the xml file. Language profile information includes type map information and file extension information, so far. The core files also load user settings, which contains license, company, and author information(loaded from default_settings.xml).

All language generating classes are store in the lib/plugins folder. Each language has a subdirectory called lang_(language id). To develop a method(function) plugin for a language it's best to find an existing plugin then copy and modify it to suit your needs. Note that the last line in each plugin registers an object of that class with the plugin manager.

If you want to make a new language plugin you must make a language profile in the lang_profiles folder(In my day there were no fancy folders. We called em directories and you had to manipulate them from the command line, and we liked it!). Anyways, a new language will also need a module named after it, like XCTECpp for C++. It also needs a utils class containing the language profile and some helper functions, all static.