Path: news.daimi.aau.dk!news.uni-c.dk!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!sunic!mn6.swip.net!plug.news.pipex.net!pipex!tube.news.pipex.net!pipex!lade.news.pipex.net!pipex!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!news.mathworks.com!fu-berlin.de!zrz.TU-Berlin.DE!marie!wpp From: wpp@marie.physik.TU-Berlin.DE (Kai Petzke) Newsgroups: comp.lang.beta Subject: Re: [Q]GuiEnv canvas.scan Date: 29 Jan 96 15:19:20 GMT Organization: Technical University Berlin, Germany Lines: 48 Message-ID: References: <4eg2mv$ra9@glitnir.ifi.uio.no> NNTP-Posting-Host: marie.physik.tu-berlin.de olag@beli.ifi.uio.no (Ola Fosheim Grøstad) writes: >Just a few more questions: :-) >Is anyone trying to make a freeware version of Beta (even if it is only >a limited version)? Yes. I am working on such a beast in my spare time. If things work well (not on the compiler - but on my studies, so they leave me time for hacking with BETA), you might see a first release of the BETA freeware compiler in a couple months. So far, the compiler understands all valid BETA declarations, except components. It can also handle quite a few expressions, like assignments, object evaluations (for those, that are not proof with the BETA terms: an "object evaluation" is, where you call the do-part of another object, and/or process the enter and exit-lists). Many binary operators, like +, -, or div have also been implemented. However, most other imperatives are not understood, yet. FOR loops are missing as well as IF conditionals, and LEAVE and RESTART are not known yet, either. The compiler is implemented as a BETA to C-translator. That way, it will be available for a wide variety of machines. However, that makes support for coroutines quite tricky, so the first release of b2c will probably have to go without them. I also doubt, that there will be an efficient garbage collection packed with the first compiler. >Would it be possible to make a Beta to C++ compiler if one ignored the >concurrency features? It depends, on what you want to do with the generated C++ code. If it is only meant for feeding it into a compiler, a BETA -> C++ translator is as feasible (or unfeasible) as a BETA -> C translator, of which an at least halfway working model is already available. However, the generated C or C++ is UGLY. So, if you think about something, which takes your BETA source tree, and outputs a C++ source tree, which can be used for further development, well, I don't think, that such a program could be written. Kai -- Kai Petzke, Technical University of Berlin, Germany http://www.physik.tu-berlin.de/~wpp/ to learn about Linux, Postgres and BETA. wpp@marie.physik.tu-berlin.de for regular e-mail How fast can computers get? -- Warp 9, of course, on Star Trek.