SWIG (Simplified Wrapper and Interface Generator)

Version: 1.3 (alpha)

$Header$

Tagline: SWIG is a compiler that integrates C, C++, and Objective-C
         with scripting languages including Perl, Python, Tcl, and Guile.

This distribution represents work in progress towards building a new
SWIG release.  The guilty parties working on this are:

  -  Dave Beazley (beazley@cs.uchicago.edu)             (SWIG core)
  -  Loic Dachary (loic@ceic.com)                       (Perl5)
  -  Harco de Hilster (Harco.de.Hilster@ATComputing.nl) (Java)
  -  Thien-Thi Nguyen (ttn@glug.org)                    (Guile)
  -  Masaki Fukushima (fukusima@goto.info.waseda.ac.jp) (Ruby)
  -  Dustin Mitchell (djmitche@cs.uchicago.edu)         (SWIG core)
  -  Ian Cooke (iancooke@cs.uchicago.edu)               (SWIG core)
  -  Catalin Dumitrescu (cldumitr@cs.uchicago.edu)      (SWIG core)

***********************************************************************
*****             IMPORTANT NOTICE -- READ THIS NOW!              *****
***********************************************************************

If you downloaded SWIG as a prepackaged release such as SWIG1.3a3, be
advised that this distribution represents a snapshot of the most
stable part of the SWIG CVS repository.  As this is an unstable
release, there is a pretty good chance that a number of features are
broken or under repair.  Currently, SWIG is undergoing a large
redevelopment effort in which it is being converted from C++ to ANSI
C.  As a result, the source code is a little disorganized at the
moment.  The SWIG1.3 series of releases should be viewed as
transitional releases leading to the eventual release of
SWIG2.0. First-time users may want to start with SWIG1.1p5 which is
significantly more stable (and includes a wider range of documentation
and examples).

*** WE NEED YOUR HELP! ***

Please report any errors and submit patches (if possible)!  Not only
are we making radical changes to the system, we only have access to a
limited variety of hardware (Linux, Solaris, and Windows). All contributions
help.

What's New?
===========
Here are the most notable changes (so far):

   - SWIG now has a full C preprocessor.

   - Code generation for the Tcl and Python modules has been
     substantially improved both in terms of size and runtime
     efficiency (Perl5 is coming along too).

   - Java module is now included.

   - The Guile module is stable. It represents C pointers as smobs and
     supports the Guile module system and exceptions. 

   - A lot of minor bug fixes and cleanup.

Here are a few missing features
 
   - The SWIG1.1 documentation system is gone and hasn't been
     replaced yet.  This is on the long-term to-do list.

   - The Tcl7.x and Perl4 modules are deprecated and no longer
     included.

   - A wide variety of old SWIG command-line options and
     obscure features are gone.

What's Broken?
==============

   - SWIG requires an ANSI C compiler.

   - A number of low-level data structures have been converted
     to C.  Since things haven't yet been fully tested, there's 
     a chance that unusual corner cases might cause SWIG to crash.
     If so, please send us a debugger traceback if possible.

Installation
============
To build and install SWIG, simply type the following:

     % ./configure
     % make
     % make install

In addition, if you need to build the runtime libraries, type
the following before doing the 'make install' step above.

     % make runtime

If you don't know what the runtime libraries are, don't worry
about this step.

The Examples directory contains a few examples of using SWIG.

Notes:

(1) If you checked the code out via CVS, you will have to run autoconf
    before typing 'configure.'  In addition, a full build of SWIG requires
    the use of bison.

(2) If you are using Windows, the easiest way to install and build 
    SWIG is to use the Cygwin package (http://sourceware.cygnus.com/cygwin/).
    Note: Even if you build SWIG using Cygwin, the easier way to
    actually use SWIG on Windows is to build your extensions using Visual C++.
    The SWIG1.1p5 distribution also contains a number of examples configured
    to work with Visual C++ (most of which should also work with SWIG1.3).

Documentation
=============
No documentation is currently included in this release.  However, most
of the documentation for SWIG1.1 still applies.  This can be obtained
on http://www.swig.org.

Participate!
============
We are looking for people who want to join the effort of getting this
next release off the ground.  Please send me email for details.

-- Dave (beazley@cs.uchicago.edu)


Developer Information
=====================
The primary goal of future development is to make SWIG more modular,
extensible, and easier to maintain.  To this end, the source code has
been consolidated and reorganized with the Source directory.  Within
this directory, there are a number of different components:

      SWIG1.1       - These two directories contain the C++ code
      Modules1.1      corresponding to the SWIG1.1.x series of 
                      releases.  This code is still in use but is
                      slowly being deprecated.

*** Important note: ALL future SWIG development is taking place
in ANSI C.  Please avoid C++ if at all possible. -- Dave ***

      DOH           - Object framework for the ANSI C core.
      Swig          - New SWIG core (ANSI C)
      Preprocessor  - SWIG preprocessor module
      LParse        - Alternative parser that is mostly compatible with 1.1.

Documentation for these components is weak or non-existent at this
time. However, this should only matter if you are actually hacking
on SWIG itself. Please bear with us.