:: F a k i i r :: v0.4.1

 A programmer's tool for code generation in object exposure

 					by Denis "jaromil" Rojo

Fakiir helps a programmer to accomply the task of exposing an API with
methods and properties, generating code for object introspection to
offer access to public functions.

If you are a user you are not really interested in this software, but
if you are a programmer you might want to read further ;^)

By now Fakiir analyzes a C++ header using a Lex&C gramatic parser,
then creates a labeled representation of the classes found (including
inheritance up to one level) and generates code to operate the classes
executing their methods. It also implements introspection for the
parsed class.

Access methods will be implemented to remote objects thru XML-RPC and
OSC protocols, as well to implement their scriptability thru a
JavaScript interpreter.

Basically Fakiir can help you with the task of writing the long,
repetitive and error prone code which is needed for mapping a public
API to object brokers. Unlike most brokers it does its work at compile
time by reading your headers.



This software is in its early development phase, while the following
limitations are respected:

- parsed headers must be well formed
  i.e. methods must not be implemented inside the header

- argument types supported are only int, float and char* strings

- inheritance is supported only up to one level:
  only parents, no grand-parents, so that a child can't also be a parent

Fakiir is being written in C++ employing STL with SGI extensions.
The gramatic parser is written in Flex and tokens are analyzed using
C, but the adoption of Yacc/Bison is planned for the future.





This code is still not very useful (and not yet employed in a real
environment by its author), but it will be soon. If you are interested
you are very welcome to join development, it might take less effort
than writing by hand the code Fakiir is going to generate when it's
ready ;^)

fakiir-model.cpp/h is the code to be included in an application in
order to take advantage of Fakiir, as well the fakiir.cpp generated
file.

More documentation about its usage is lacking at the moment, but there
is a fully functional test application in the test/ directory, have a
look there if you are curious enough.

Thanks to Supreet aka Djinn for his advices on string handling and for
revamping in me the interest in STL, which i'll be exploring further
while developing this software.




This source code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU Public License as published 
by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License,
or (at your option) any later version.

This source code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Please refer to the GNU Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Public License along with
this source code; if not, write to:
Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.