Incremental BASIC Compiler Experiment
The code for the Interactive BASIC Compiler Project (IBCP) code has become rather complicated. The code probably should be cleaned up (refactored). Also, while there are tests for the IBCP code, the test code is built into the program and activated with special command line options with test input files and expected test results files. This is not ideal and is problematic on Windows, and this is not a substitute for proper unit tests.
This repository is a test bed for research of some new ideas for the conversion of BASIC code into the internal code. The Test Driven Development (TDD) methodology will be used, which consists of these three simple steps:
- Develop a test for a new feature (which will initially fail as the feature is not yet implement).
- Implement just enough code to make the test pass.
- Clean up (refactor) the code (using the passing tests to validate the changes).
These steps are repeated as development progresses. This repository will still utilize C++11 and the C++ Standard Library (STL).
The goal of this project is to develop a set of classes to form a core library for an interactive BASIC compiler. This library will not contain a GUI or any user interface. If this experiment is successful, it will replace the equivalent code, but overly complicated code, in the IBCP. There will be no executable for a while beyond the unit tests to exercise these classes.
The Catch unit test platform is being used for developing unit tests. Catch is easy to use and only consists of a single header file. The unit test programs are created under CMake and are run with CTest. Coverage tools are being utilized to insure that 100% of the code is being tested. This will insure that what has been implemented stays working correctly. The unit tests will also provide active documentation.
There is no blog associated with this project (though occasional posts may be made to the IBCP blog). Details of changes will be in the commit messages of the repository. Releases of the code will not be posted as 'official' releases as IBCP was to sourceforge - the code will only be available in this repository, and releases will be made by tags only.
The git master/develop/topic branching model used for IBCP will eventually be used for this repository, but at this early stage of development until more progress is made, a single (master) branch will be used. Additional status and details about tool setup, building, testing etc. can be found in the wiki for this repository.