Go up to Top
Go forward to The language accepted by c--

Using the C-- Complier

To compile a program using c-- simply type a command of the form
c- source-file-name
The source file name should end with a ".c" suffix. The compiler will write error messages (if any) to the standard error file (usually your screen) and create a file named tmem containing the executable version of your program. In addition, to help you when you need to do low level debugging, the compiler leaves the listing produced by applying the assembler to its output in a file whose name is formed by replacing the ".c" suffix on the input file by a ".l" suffix.

The weakest component of c-- is its ability to handle syntactic and semantic errors in the source program. The messages it produces in response to syntax errors could easily be more informative. The amount of time you spend enduring this weakness of my compiler can be greatly reduced by first compiling code using the standard C compiler. While gcc won't produce code for the WC34000 machine, it will produce nice error messages that will help you clean your code up before submitting it to c--.

I should also admit that the compiler has other quirks. In past semesters, students have adjusted to them quickly. Please report any odd behavior to me, however. I'll try to fix them as quickly as I can.



Up Next