@node Part II Language Filters
@chapter Language Filters

@strong{Please note: This chapter is probably completely outdated!}

This chapter discusses the language filter support in Form Designer,
targeted primarily to the developers of other language bindings to
Forms Library. As of this writing, the authors are aware of the
following bindings
@table @code
@item ada95
by G.@: Vincent Castellano @email{gvc@@ocsystems.com}
@item perl
by Martin Bartlett @email{martin@@nitram.demon.co.uk}
@item Fortran
by G.@: Groten @email{zdv017@@zam212.zam.kfa-juelich.de} and Anke
Haeming @email{A.Haeming@@kfa-juelich.de}
@item pascal
by Michael Van Canneyt @email{michael@@tfdec1.fys.kuleuven.ac.be}
@item scm/guile
by Johannes Leveling @email{Johannes.Leveling@@Informatik.Uni-Oldenburg.DE}
@item python
by Roberto Alsina @email{ralsina@@ultra7.unl.edu.ar}. It would appear
that author of python binding is no longer working on it.
@end table

These bindings are of varying degree of beta-ness and support. It
appears to the authors that the most convenient and flexible way of
getting output in the targeted language is through external filters
that are invoked transparently by fdesign. This way, developers of the
binding would have complete control over the translation of the
default output from the fdesign to the target language and at the same
time have the translation done transparently.

@ifnottex

@menu
* External Filters::
* Command Line Arguments of the Filter::
@end menu

@end ifnottex


@node External Filters
@section External Filters

An external filter is a stand-alone program that works on the output
of Form Designer and translates the output to the target language. The
filter can elect to work on the @code{.fd} or the C output or both
simultaneously. However, in non-testing situations, the c output from
Form Designer probably should be deleted by the filter once the
translation is complete.

By default, Form Designer only outputs the @code{.fd} and C files. If
the presence of @code{-ada}, @code{-perl}, @code{-python},
@code{-fortran}, @code{-pascal} or @code{-scm} command line options to
Form Designer is detected, then after emitting the default output,
Form Designer invokes the the external filter with the root filename
(without the @code{.fd} extension) as an argument, together with
possible other flags, to the filter. Any runtime error messages are
presented to the user in a browser. The filter name by default is
@code{fd2xxxx} where @code{xxxx} is the language name (such as
@code{fd2perl} etc.), which can be changed using the @code{-filter}
command line option (or equivalent resources).

The resources that are relevant to the filter are listed below
@multitable @columnfractions 0.3 0.3 0.3
Resource Type Default
@item language
@tab string
@tab C
@item filter
@tab string
@tab None
@end multitable

@node Command Line Arguments of the Filter
@section Command Line Arguments of the Filter

Form Designer passes along the options that affect the output format
to the filter. These options may or may not apply to the filter, most
likely not if the filter works on the C file. For those that do not
apply, the filter can simply ignore them, but shouldn't stop running
because of these options.
@table @code
@item -callback
callback stubs are generated
@item -main
main stub is generated
@item -altformat
output in alternate format
@item -compensate
emit size compensation code
@end table
