Description
Cake is a C23 compiler front end written from scratch in C.
The compiler can be used to translate new versions of C (like C23) to C99.
It also can be used to try out new features for the C language.
Extensions like lambdas, defer and more were implemented.
Web Playground
This is the best way to try.
http://thradams.com/cake/playground.html
Use cases
If you have a project that is distributed with code, you don't need to limit the project development at the lower supported language version. For instance, you can use attributes like nodiscard during the development or defer, both features improving the code security. Then adding a extra step in your build you can distribute a readable C99 source code that compiles everywhere.
Features
- C23 preprocessor
- Syntax analysis
- Semantic analysis
- C backend
- Builds AST
Build
MSVC build instructions
Open the Developer Command Prompt of visual studio. Go to the src directory and type
cl build.c && build
This will build cake.exe, then run cake on its own source code.
GCC (linux) build instructions
Got to the src directory and type:
gcc build.c -o build && ./build
To run unit tests windows/linux add -DTEST for instance:
gcc -DTEST build.c -o build && ./build
Emscripten build instructions (web)
Emscripten https://emscripten.org/ is required.
First do the normal build.
The normal build also generates a file lib.c that is the amalgameted version of the "core lib".
Then at ./src dir type:
call emcc -DMOCKFILES "lib.c" -o "Web\cake.js" -s WASM=0 -s EXPORTED_FUNCTIONS="['_CompileText']" -s EXTRA_EXPORTED_RUNTIME_METHODS="['ccall', 'cwrap']"
This will generate the \src\Web\cake.js
Running cake at command line
Make sure cake is on your system path.
Samples
cake source.c
this will ouput ./out/source.c
See Manual
Road map
- Complete semantic analisys + static analysis
- Backend ?
References
A copy of each C standard draft in included in docs folder. The parser is based on C23.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_C#C89
- https://en.cppreference.com/w/c
- https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/xl-c-aix/13.1.0?topic=extensions-c99-features
Influenced by
- Typescript
- Small C compilers
Participating
You can contribute by trying out cake, reporting bugs, and giving feedback.
Have a sugestion for C?
Status?
Even if not necessary for most features, I want Cake to make a full semantic analysis.
It is necessary more work it is not complete yet.
How cake is tested?
I am using Visual Studio 2022 IDE to write/debug cake source. Cake is parsing itself using the includes of MSVC and it generates the out dir after build. I use WSL for testing and compiling the code for linux.
Cake source code is not using any extension so the output is the same of input. This compilation is usefull for tracking errors.
Cake uses unit tests that are called automatically.
Differences from CFront
Cfront was the original compiler for C++ which converted C++ to C. CFront generated code was used only for direct compilation because it had all macros expanded making it useless in other plataforms.
Cake have two modes. One is for direct compilation (like cfront) and the other preserves macros includes etc.. making it suitable for distribution.
The other difference is that C++ is a second branch of evolution making C++ more compatible with C89 than C99.
The idea of Cake is to keep the main line of evolution of C and be always 100% compatible.
The added extensions aims to keep the spirit of the language and implement proposed features in a way they can be experimented even before standarization.