[ANN] S-Expression Syntax Trees for C!

From: Brian Mastenbrook (NOSPAMbmastenbNOSPAM_at_cs.indiana.edu)
Date: 03/02/04 

Date: Mon, 01 Mar 2004 23:29:29 -0500

It's time to end the c.l.l welfare state! Too long have the fruitful
labors of our most prolific posters been misdirected in a grand
conspiracy to serve the so-called "needy". This grand plot to make our
newsgroup mediocre and destroy our ability to compete against other
newsgroups and languages was invented by no less than five former
c.l.c++ officials at a recent meeting in Romania! It is doubtful that
the lowly posters who implement this sinister agenda even know of the
true nature of their operation. Nonetheless it's time to face the
facts. The c.l.l welfare system is unjust and oppressive! Its sprawling
tentacles reach even the most distant outposts of the lisp community,
and bind our best and brightest to chains of economic injustice. There
are those who would argue that this welfare state brings justice to the
lower class and feeds the hungry. But how can they deny the simple
conclusion of a recent independent study of c.l.l and c.l.scheme? Yes,
this simple fact will change the issue of public newsgroup policy
forever, as the headlines proclaimed:

TODAY'S TROLLS BETTER FED THAN EVER! - Planet Lisp
EXPERTS: OBESITY GROWING PROBLEM AMONG TROLLS - ALU
TROLLS "NOT HUNGRY" ANYMORE - CLiki.net

Rise up, my fellow posters, and realize that the virtuous cause you
believe you have been contributing to has been a false one, designed to
sap the talents and efforts of an entire community! You have nothing to
lose but your own bonds of oppression and indignity!

*Ahem*. Now that that's all taken care of, I'd like to announce sexpc,
a translator for a S-Expression representation of a subset of C. The
translator when run on valid code produces ANSI C, and already includes
a large number of language features.

I created the translator as I was thinking about writing a compiler,
and realized I'd like to go to at least some intermediate
representation of C before outputting raw C code. sexpc is my answer to
that problem. I would hope it would be useful on its own too, for
people who need to write C but can't stand the thought of giving up
macros.

You can find its web page at http://www.common-lisp.net/project/sexpc/
. There is a public darcs repository, example code, and documentation
as well.

Taylor Campbell has expressed interest in a Scheme port, which I'm
certainly interested in as well. Right now it uses some reader hacks so
that case is preserved (not an issue in R5RS scheme I think), and so
that backslashes in strings are preserved (this is an issue).
Suggestions are welcome, as are patches. Join the mailing list if you'd
like to comment! 

-- 
Brian Mastenbrook
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/~bmastenb/