Compiling Delila Programs with GPC

The Delila programs can be compiled using the GNU Pascal Compiler (gpc). With the advent of the GPC compiler Pascal programs will run on most machines. GPC is quite powerful and can be used for system functions, although the Delila programs do not take advantage of this.

As of the latest release GPC will now work on Delila programs!

Date/Time
Any program that uses the getdatetime routine to stamp output with the date and time must have the correct version of that routine. You must replace the time package with the correct one.

Archive of Delila programs.

Script for Compilation

I have written a script to compile using GPC: gpcc. The main features of the script are that it sets several flags:

--standard-pascal This works for all programs that do not have date/time calls. The script will detect the use of time functions and automatically remove this option if needed.
--transparent-file-names This flag is set on so that file names given in the program map directly to the local file directory names. This allows the user to have, for example, a makelogop file and the makelogo program will automatically read it. Without this flag on, the user would have to type the file name for every run, which is tedious and makes scripts just about useless.
--no-mixed-comments This flag is required because sometimes I will use a bibtex format reference or other things, and these have {} which are Pascal comments.

The gpcdebug script will GPC compile in debug mode. Then it launches gdb for finding the location of the problem.

Compiling and Run Time Problems

NOTES ON PROBLEMS:

None noted yet. However GPC will object to various things in specific programs that the Sun compiler did not. Generally these have been easy to fix but I will have to go through each program to upgrade it. I have not yet worked out a mechanism for indicating which programs will compile under GPC.
If weird things happen, you can email me. An article by Simon Tatham, How to Report Bugs Effectively, is quite good at explaining what a programmer needs to be able to fix a bug. (Here is my copy in case that one disappears like Jeff Covey's did!)

GPC on the Mac

If you try GPC and it works or if you have trouble compiling, please email me.

color bar
Small icon for Theory of Molecular Machines: physics,
chemistry, biology, molecular biology, evolutionary theory,
genetic engineering, sequence logos, information theory,
electrical engineering, thermodynamics, statistical
mechanics, hypersphere packing, gumball machines, Maxwell's
Daemon, limits of computers

Schneider Lab
origin: 2000 July 24
updated: 2012 Mar 08
color bar