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<h1><a name=""></a>NyktOP Project Homepage</h1>
<p>Welcome to the NyktOP Homepage!</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="#goals">Goals</a></li>
<li><a href="#tools">Tools</a></li>
<li><a href="#supported">Supported languages</a></li>
<li><a href="#problems">Problems</a></li>
<li><a href="#examples">Existing Projects using NyktOP</a></li>
<li><a href="#port">Portability</a></li>
<li><a href="#author">Author</a></li>
<li><a href="#download">Download</a></li>
<li><a href="#name">The name of the game</a></li>
<li><a href="#refs">References</a></li>
<!-- <li><a href="#"></a></li>-->
</ul>
<hr> <!-- ------------------------------------------------------------ -->
<h2><a name="goals"></a>Goals</h2>
<p>
Short: NyktOP is a <i>source code generator</i> package. It is based on
(runtime) support libraries/modules for different languages.</p>
<p>NyktOP shall simplify prototyping (with tcl, perl, smalltalk or C++) and
support structured programming. It's advantages are: standardized (ascii)
File-I/O (via <a href="./slang.html">SLANG</a>) and easy modelling of
datastructures.</p>
<p>The first version had simple reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li>
In newer projects the internal Code generator of <a href="#moose">MOOSE</a>
had to be used. But since <a href="#moose">MOOSE</a> was in a very rapdidly
changing state, we had to build a generator for <tt>RODEO</tt>/II, that
produced similar C++ code and that was that independent, that we
wouldn't get problems while MOOSE was changing.</li>
<li>
<a href="#moose">MOOSE</a> was never meant to support <code>static</code>
(C++ verb) or <code>class</code> (smalltalk verb) attributes. However in
certain situations such attributes are very handy.</li>
<li>
<i>.<a href="./slang.html">SLANG</a></i> Files - and
<a href="#moose">MOOSE</a> currently only supports that file
format - versioning and revision control via
RCS is just impossible, b/c object order usually
differs between each two write-outs.</li>
<li>
<i>.<a href="./slang.html">SLANG</a></i> files (see 3) in fact
cannot be edited manually, b/c references are written with
key-values calculated from memory addresses of referenced
objects. (for this reason our main input source for the (old)
generator are ascii <i>.pre</i>-files; for the new perl-based
generator we use .input files)</li>
</ol>
<hr> <!-- ------------------------------------------------------------ -->
<h2><a name="tools"></a>Tools</h2>
<p>To achieve our goal we supply different tools:</p>
<ul>
<li>
A generic editor (tk-based) to enable simple design of data
structures</li>
<li>
A template-expander (C-based) to be used as a codegenerator
for different languages (I've recently seen a very similar
approach named gslgen)</li>
<li>
A perl-based code generator to replace the expander is being
created.</li>
</ul>
<hr> <!-- ------------------------------------------------------------ -->
<h2><a name="supported"></a>Supported languages</h2>
<p>First we support all languages that are also supported by
<a href="#moose">MOOSE</a> (not only since there is an export-function
to but also since we try generate very similar output):</p>
<ul>
<li>
C++ (together with the mcl of
<a href="http://wwwagz.informatik.uni-kl.de/">AG Zimmermann</a>)
(from .pre)</li>
<li>
Smalltalk (for Digitalk/<a href="http://www.objectshare.com/">Objectshare
</a> VisualWorks<a href="#r">*</a>) (from .pre and from .input)</li>
</ul>
<p>Furthermore we support some other generation:</p>
<ul>
<li>
Export to <a href="#moose">MOOSE</a> (from .pre)</li>
<li>
Class hierarchy as Postscript<a href="#r">*</a>, MIF
((Frame)Maker<a href="#r">*</a> Interchange Format),
RTF (Rich Text Format) (from .pre)</li>
<li>
Class std documentation in HTML (from .pre)</li>
<!-- <li>
Std object editing UI (using UIM/X<a href="#r">*</a>)</li> -->
<li>
<a href="#tcl">TCL/TK</a> generator (also with std GUI,
tk8-based) (from .input)</li>
<li>
<a href="#perl">Perl</a> generator (from .input)</li>
<li>
Yet untested <a href="#awk">gawk</a>-generator</li>
</ul>
<hr> <!-- ------------------------------------------------------------ -->
<h2><a name="problems"></a>Problems</h2>
<p>A slight problem is the fact, that currently the different
generator parts (and also their templates) operate upon
different <a href="./source.html">dataset syntax</a>...
(the younger perl-, smalltalk- and tcl-generators try
to use a completely other <i>.input</i> syntax than the
<i>.pre</i> syntax of the older C++ generator)</p>
<p>On the other hand for the elder <i>.pre</i> format used w/
C++-generators we have a bigger template base. For example the
C++ code-generator allowed to build a complete application with
functions and additional methods, while perl, Smalltalk and tcl
codegenerators do just generate data-structures, their I/O and
std access methods.</p>
<p>Besides the elder templates are more sophisticated; we had e.g.
certain templates for several flags and for arrays and different
non-class types, that are not yet supported in newer generators</p>
<p>Since there are now converters between the different formats (at
least from .pre to .input and from .input to .pre) this should be
not that urgent any more.</p>
<p>Biggest problem however is the fact, that
<a href="./support.html">
<b>NyktOP is still a single-user/ single-developer system</b></a>:
<em>as long as no-one but the creator uses it, there will be no
progress</em>. This problem covers especially the template-expander,
which acts as the main c++ code generator and which is a really
dirty & buggy old C hack. Another - perhaps even worse - example
is the missing documentation. Due to the fact, that every function
is used only by its writer, there was no need yet to produce any
documentation.</p>
<hr> <!-- ------------------------------------------------------------ -->
<h2><a name="examples"></a>Existing Projects using NyktOP</h2>
<p>NyktOP code generators have already been used in different
<em>own</em> projects.</p>
<dl>
<dt>stat (<i>.pre</i> for C++)</dt>
<dd>A simple statistical evaluation system to calculate netlength of
designed chips in order to check, if they follow certain stochastic
distributions (gauss, exp; check via chi-square)
<p>(job, finished)</p>
</dd>
<dt><tt>RODEO</tt>/II (<i>.pre</i> for C++)</dt>
<dd>Reuse Of Design Objects: a system to support eCAD by supporting reuse
of elder design parts. Possibility to use customized comparison functions
to search for the best matching desgin-case in a database.
<p>(Project thesis, finished)</p>
</dd>
<dt>sdlparser (<i>.pre</i> for C++)</dt>
<dd>Converter from SDL into SLANG
<p>(Part of master thesis, finished)</p>
</dd>
<dt><a href="./nyktcl.html">nykditor</a> (tcl/tk)</dt>
<dd>simple editor to input structured designs. customable via
different configs (current configs: EER, Statecharts)
<p>(Statecharts part of master thesis, finished) (EER: just a joke,
incompatible replacement for MOOSE)</p>
<p>...</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<hr> <!-- ------------------------------------------------------------ -->
<h2><a name="port"></a>Portability</h2>
<p>All used tools are known to work on HP/UX 9.x, 10.0 and Linux
(SuSE 5.2, SuSE 6.1), however there is no aid for installation.
If U try to install, plz send an <a href="#author">EMail to the
author</a>.</p>
<hr> <!-- ------------------------------------------------------------ -->
<h2><a name="author"></a>Author</h2>
<dl>
<dt>SnailMail:</dt>
<dd>
<address>
Bernd Noll, <br>Theodor-Heuss-Str. 17, <br>D-67663 Kaiserslautern,
Germany; </address></dd>
<dt>Phone:</dt>
<dd>
<address>+49 / -631 / 311 2005</address></dd>
<dt>EMail</dt>
<dd>
<address>
<a href="mailto:noll@student.uni-kl.de">
mailto:noll@student.uni-kl.de</a></address>
<address>
<a href="mailto:noll@informatik.uni-kl.de">
mailto:noll@informatik.uni-kl.de</a></address></dd>
<dt>WWW</dt>
<dd>
<address>
<a href="http://www.student.uni-kl.de/~noll/">
http://www.student.uni-kl.de/~noll/</a></address>
<address>
<a href="http://wwwagz.informatik.uni-kl.de/staff/noll/">
http://wwwagz.informatik.uni-kl.de/staff/noll/</a></address></dd>
<dt>IRC</dt>
<dd>
<address>
`0` @ #PerryRhodan (IRCnet)</address></dd>
</dl>
<hr> <!-- ------------------------------------------------------------ -->
<h2><a name="download"></a>Download</h2>
<ul>
<li>
Get the <a href="#tcl">tcl/tk</a> and editor related modules
(<a href="./nyktop-tcl.tar.gz">nyktop-tcl.tar.gz, 100k</a>)
(Related is a c-module to speed up slang-i/o:
<a href="./tcl-slang.tar.gz">tcl-slang.tar.gz, 5k</a>)</li>
<li>
Get the <a href="#perl">perl</a> related runtime modules
(<a href="./nyktop-perl.tar.gz">nyktop-perl.tar.gz, 20k</a>)</li>
<li>
Get the perl based generator
(<a href="./generator.tar.gz">generator.tar.gz, 50k</a>)</li>
<li>
Get <!-- parts of --> the old template-expander based CC generator
(<a href="./old.tar.gz">old.tar.gz, 220k</a>. Trying to get
and use this archive is probably a bad idea, since it's a collection
of terrible hacks)</li>
<li>
A copy of the current <a href="./Disclaimer.txt">Disclaimer</a> is
also directly accessible, for those ppl, who fear, that they make any
contract w/ anyone by just downloading the soft.</li>
<li>
For the sake of completeness, U can also download an archive of
<a href="./html.tar.gz">all html</a> pages of the NyktOP homepage.
This is suggested, since there is still no documentation for NyktOP.</li>
</ul>
<p>
There are installation scripts supported for tcl and perl related
modules and also for the newer perl based generator; use via <br>
'<code>bash INSTALL.bash (destinationdirectory:=/usr/local)</code>'.<br>
The elder template-expander based generator has no installation support.</p>
<hr> <!-- ------------------------------------------------------------ -->
<h3><a name="history"></a>History</h3>
<p>
Due to the fact, that the archives currently don't have any version
numbering (no release-number neither in name nor intern), it is
suggested to have a look at the <a href="./history.html">History</a>
page, which should name the most important changes.</p>
<hr> <!-- ------------------------------------------------------------ -->
<h2><a name="name"></a>The name of the game</h2>
<!-- <p> <math> Nυκτ&omikron;σ
Oφταλ&my;&omikron;ι -
Λα&my;παδεσ
Λειπω&ny;
</math> </p> -->
<p>Nyktos ophtalmoi - lampades leipon. Eyes of the night, lights
for the left.</p>
<p>This is a very pathetic name for just a small little collection of
prototyping tools, but the name was born, when we heard the news,
that CBM<a href="#r">*</a> had dropped Amiga<a href="#r">*</a>.</p>
<hr> <!-- ------------------------------------------------------------ -->
<h2><a name="refs"></a>References</h2>
<dl>
<dt>
<a name="moose"></a>MOOSE</dt>
<dd> is an internal project of AG Zimmermann.
More information on it can be found below homepage of
<a href="http://wwwagz.informatik.uni-kl.de/projects/SFB501/D1/MOOSE/">AG
Zimmermann</a>.</dd>
<dt>
<a name="perl"></a>Perl</dt>
<dd> is a nice semi-interpreted language,
mainly used for scripting and conversion.
It's main site is <a href="http://www.perl.com/">Perl.com</a>.</dd>
<dt>
<a name="tcl"></a>TCL</dt>
<dd> is another interpreter language; it is
usually used in connection with TK (TCL/TK) for smaller GUI
oriented applications.
It's main site is <a href="http://www.scriptics.com/">Scriptics.com</a>.
</dd>
<dt>
<a name="awk"></a>AWK</dt>
<dd> is an elder scripting language merely for
filtering scripts. There are newer versions of this language:
mawk, nawk and gawk. We do only refer to gawk (GNU-awk), that
can be found at the HP of the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/">Free
software foundation</a>.</dd>
<!--<li>
<a name=""></a>
It's main site is <a href="http://">here</a>.</li> -->
</dl>
<hr> <!-- ------------------------------------------------------------ -->
<h2><a name="links"></a>Summary of Links</h2>
<ul>
<li>
Local documents
<ul>
<li><a href="./Disclaimer.txt">./Disclaimer.txt</a> - Copyright, no warranties ;)</li>
<li><a href="./nyktcl.html">./nyktcl.html</a> - Overview on NyktOP/TCL and its editor</li>
<li><a href="./slang.html">./slang.html</a> - Overview on slang file format</li>
<li><a href="./source.html">./source.html</a> - Overview on input file formats for generator</li>
<li><a href="./support.html">./support.html</a> - Request for comments / help</li>
<li><a href="./history.html">./history.html</a> - Overview on the most important changes</li>
</ul> </li>
<li>
current mirrors:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://wwwagz.informatik.uni-kl.de/staff/noll/nyktop/">http://wwwagz.informatik.uni-kl.de/staff/noll/nyktop/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Way/3436/nyktop/">http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Way/3436/nyktop/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://programmierer.freepage.de/cgi-bin/feets/freepage_ext/41030x030A/rewrite/null/nyktop/index.html">http://programmierer.freepage.de/null/nyktop/</a></li>
</ul> </li>
<li>
External links
<ul>
<li><a href="http://wwwagz.informatik.uni-kl.de/">AG Zimmermann Homepage</a></li>
<li><a href="http://wwwagz.informatik.uni-kl.de/projects/SFB501/D1/MOOSE/">MOOSE Project Homepage</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.scriptics.com/">Scriptics Homepage - TCL related stuff</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.perl.com/">Perl Homepage</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/">FSF (GNU) Homepage</a> e.g. for gawk, gperf, gcc ...</li>
<li><a href="http://www.objectshare.com/">Objectshare Homepage</a> (U might want to have a look at VisualWorks; a free version can be downloaded)</li>
<p></p>
<li><a href="http://www.imatix.com/html/gslgen/index.htm">GSLgen</a> Another codegenerator similar to NyktOP's elder template-based generator, using xml-based inputs</li>
</ul> </li>
</ul>
<hr> <!-- ------------------------------------------------------------ -->
<p><a name="r"></a>* We use different registered or trademarked expressions in this file,
without explicitely showing the properties.</p>
<hr> <!-- ------------------------------------------------------------ -->
<p>
Best viewed with probably any Browser;
<br>
if U want to see a beautiful page with java(script), frames and lots of
pix, go somewhere else.</p>
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