Installation

• You will need to be running an Unix-like operating system (works on macOS and most Linux distributions)
• You will need to have Python 3.7.0 or later installed
• You will need to have a C++ compiler installed

Running

All the following commands assume your current working directory is the folder containing this README file. To do that, run cd path/to/folder.

• To exclusively convert the algorithm to a C++ file, run python3 compile.py FILE replacing FILE with the path to the algorithm.
• To parse and compile the algorithm into a binary executable, run python3 compile.py FILE compile replacing FILE with the path to the algorithm.
• To parse, compile, and run the algorithm from the binary executable, run python3 compile.py FILE run replacing FILE with the path to the algorithm.

Features

Currently, AlgoCompile supports:

• Global variables

• Main program function

• Additional functions

• Function calls

• Variable assignments

• In-line arithmetic (+, -, *, /, %, =, ≠, <, >, ≥, ≤, and, or, |, &, ^)

• if, else if, else conditions

• while loops

• do...while loops

• for loops

• switch...case statements

AlgoCompile does NOT support:

• while loops directly inside do...while loops (requires changing while condition to while condition do)
• if conditions directly after else blocks (requires preventing line breaks inside else if keywords)

For example, this program will fail to parse (thus to compile or run too):

VAR: x: integer
BEGIN
  do
    Write("Please enter a number: ")
    Read(x)

    while x > 0
#   ^ problem is here
      Write(x, "\n")
      x <- x - 1
    end while
#       ^ error is located here
  while x < 0
END

Workaround:

VAR: x: integer
BEGIN
  do
    Write("Please enter a number: ")
    Read(x)

    if true then # Moving the while loop one block further down fixes the issue, here an always-true condition is used
      while x > 0
        Write(x, "\n")
        x <- x - 1
      end while
    end if
  while x < 0
END

The following program will also fail to parse (thus to compile or run too):

VAR: x: integer
BEGIN
  Write("Please enter a number: ")
  Read(x)

  if x > 0 then
    Write(x, " is positive.\n")
  else
    if x < 0 then
#   ^ problem is here
      Write(x, " is negative.\n")
    else
      Write(x, " is zero.\n")
    end if

    Write(x, " is not positive.\n")
  end if
#     ^ error is located here
END

Workaround:

VAR: x: integer
BEGIN
  Write("Please enter a number: ")
  Read(x)

  if x > 0 then
    Write(x, " is positive.\n")
  else
    Write("") # Adding a non-whitespace and non-comment character between the else and if fixes the issue, here a no-op function is used

    if x < 0 then
      Write(x, " is negative.\n")
    else
      Write(x, " is zero.\n")
    end if

    Write(x, " is not positive.\n")
  end if
END

TODO

• Handle arrays/matrices
• Handle returns, breaks, and continues
• Remove useless parenthesis in formulas
• Fix changed arguments (pointer arithmetic)