PDCLib: Alpha Testers Wanted!

[Solar]

I am nearing completion of the first package release of the Public Domain C Library (PDCLib).

This first package will consist of a complete "freestanding" C99 environment (float.h, iso646.h, limits.h, stdarg.h, stdbool.h, stddef.h, stdint.h).

I am looking for "alpha testers" who would take the package, and try to adapt it to their respective development environments. This "adaption" should consist of editing a single file with constant definitions, so nothing wild.

The "stranger" your setup, the better. GCC 3.x on x86 I've got myself; I'd welcome "ports" of the package to e.g. DJGPP, or the PPC platform.

If everything goes as intended, you could send me the single file back, and I could include it in the release package so others wouldn't have to go through the same process themselves.

Any takers?

[KieranFoot]

Sounds good...

I would be happy to help...

[Solar]

Don't say "here" just to get at it sooner. I'll make the alpha package available on SourceForce for all to download.

What I'm looking for in testers is not only looking at whether PDCLib compiles with your respective kernel, but digging through the sources thinking like someone porting PDCLib to a new platform (better yet, doing such a port), and tell me what you think.

Sources are ~20 kByte, so nothing wild.

[distantvoices]

gunna take that package as soon as it is available.

an ordinary gcc 3.4 environment on Ix86 i have ready at hands - my kernel. I *could* give it a test in
gentoo environment on my sun ultra (would be sparc64 then).

[chris]

I can try it on my NetBSD and OS X box's.

[distantvoices]

Hey, Solar, how 's the going with your package? Me 's anxious to get my paws on it.


Stay safeand have a nice day.

[Solar]

Guess what, I made the mistake and promised a friend to get Gentoo Linux installed on his box... and as usual, that took longer than expected.

Thing is, I get good work done on my PDA, but I still have to test the stuff on a "real" computer to make sure I didn't screw up the loads and loads of #define's... (four indirections deep at some places... *shudder*)

Don't expect too much, though - it's just the "freestanding" part, i.e. lots of defines and typedefs and nothing (!) else. But in the very least it'll give you NULL, int32_t and a solid set of _MAX and _MIN limits. Stay put, might be this weekend.

[Solar]

OK, don't ask. These last few weeks have been like nothing I would like to repeat. :-[

PDCLib 0.1 will make it into the file release section this weekend.

But: C99 <stdint.h> makes some rather funny "circular assumptions" as to the width of datatypes. Effectively, there must be 8, 16, 32, and 64 bit datatypes. With 16 bit short and 32 bit int, that works out well, but:

Does anyone know of a platform where 'int' is 64 bit? Since 'short' and 'char' can only cover two of the three remaining widths (8, 16, 32), how does that platform solve the issue?

To get <stdint.h> to work, I had to make a couple of assumptions and add some limitations I am not happy with, and any input to the question above would be highly appreciated.

[dh]

great! i'll probably use it!! can't wait..well I can..but I don't want to!!

[edit] I was recommended by Beyond Infinity to use your lib. Looking forward .[/edit]

[Solar]

v0.1 is available at the SF project page. Only the freestanding part of the C libary, missing the INTN_C() and UINTN_C() macros and having the GNU-i386 values still hardcoded into <float.h>.

You're welcome to point out mistakes and send in _PDCLIB_config.h files for your individual platforms of choice.

[fraserjgordon]

I'm not sure about this, but I've heard that on (some) 64-bit platforms the "long int" and "int" types are different sizes. Can't say anything more as I don't have a 64-bit system to test this on.

[Pype.Clicker]

goliath /home/martin> ./sizes
char = 1
short= 2
int= 4
long= 8
llong= 8
float= 4
double=8
goliath /home/martin> uname -a
Linux goliath 2.6.5-7.111.5-smp #1 SMP Wed Nov 17 11:08:17 UTC 2004 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Solar]

I'm not sure about this, but I've heard that on (some) 64-bit platforms the "long int" and "int" types are different sizes.

On some 16-bit platforms, too (int 16, long 32). That has been taken into account already.

The comment about hardcoded values refers to the floating point values in <float.h>. I'm not too much into floating point arithmetics, so I took what enquire.c gave me and left it at that for now.

[df]

ive downloaded it. but i cant garuntee anything. today im cleaning the house top to bottom. tomorow my fiancee comes over for 2+1/2 weeks... im gonna be busy for a while. doing tourist things for a while, etc.

im more and more getting back into openwatcom and getting rid of gcc for some of my osdev stuff (not that I really do any now.....)..

so i may play with a port to openwatcom for you but, no garuntees mate.

[Sully]

How do I check out the code from the CVS repository? I've got some code I'd like to contribute, and I assume the best way to send it would be a diff against the latest cvs.

Oh, and where should I send my contributions?