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-*- mode: Text -*-
Flick --- Flexible IDL Compiler Kit
Eric Eide, James Simister, Tim Stack,
Kevin Frei, Eric Pabst, Bryan Ford,
Jay Lepreau, Gary Lindstrom
flick@cs.utah.edu
The Flux Project, University of Utah
http://www.cs.utah.edu/flux/
+1-801-585-3271
November 1999
This is Flick version 2.1, an interface definition language (IDL) compiler
(``stub generator'') that generates optimized code and supports a variety of
IDLs and message transport mechanisms. The Flick compiler is distributed under
the GNU General Public License; see the file named `COPYING' for details. The
Flick runtime headers and libraries are distributed under a separate license
(BSD-style without the advertising clause); see the file `runtime/COPYING' for
details. Additional support files, if needed (in the `support' directory), are
distributed under various licenses; see the file `COPYRIGHT' for details.
The text of the Flick 2.1 announcement is in the file `doc/announce.text'; see
that file for additional details such as the list of tested platforms. For
help building Flick, see the `INSTALL' file. The `doc/usersguide/user.ps' file
is the Flick user's manual, complete with code examples. The `doc/BUGS' file
describes known defects and as-yet-unimplemented features.
For an introduction to Flick's overall design and internals, please read our
PLDI '97 paper, ``Flick: A Flexible, Optimizing IDL Compiler,'' available from
the Flick Web pages at <http://www.cs.utah.edu/flux/flick/>. To learn about
Flick's internals in gory detail, refer to the `doc/guts/guts.ps' manual.
We welcome comments, technical discussion, and collaborators. If you start
using Flick, please let us know; send mail to <flick-users-request@cs.utah.edu>
with the message body containing the line
subscribe flick-users
to get on the mailing list. Send bugs and fixes to <flick-bugs@cs.utah.edu>.
CHANGES SINCE FLICK 2.0
Flick 2.1 incorporates several new features, bug fixes, and a major new
document on Flick's internals. Most notably:
+ Flick now generates optimized C++ stubs that work with TAO version 1.0, the
real-time, open source ORB from Washington University in St. Louis. (The
previous release of Flick supported TAO 0.3.23.) You will need to acquire
a copy of TAO 1.0 in order to make use of Flick's C++ stubs. For
information about TAO, see <http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/TAO.html>.
+ Flick's generated C and C++ files are now smaller --- often much smaller!
Flick now eliminates unnecessary functions (internal marshal and unmarshal
functions) from generated code.
+ The Flick Programmer's Manual (a.k.a. ``The Guts Manual'') has been
completely rewritten and expanded. This manual is essential reading for
anyone who wants to hack on Flick or create new Flick compiler components.
+ Lots and lots of miscellaneous bug fixes.
STATUS
Flick 2.1 is quite robust, but this is not to say that it is bug-free. Current
and past projects that use Flick include:
+ QuOIN, the Quorum Distributed Object Integration Project, led by BBN. This
DARPA-funded project is combining technology from many researchers in order
to create a unified, flexible, and quality-of-service aware framework for
distributed object computing.
+ The Fluke Operating System. Flick is the IDL compiler for Fluke, a new
operating system being developed by the Flux Project at the University of
Utah. See <http://www.cs.utah.edu/flux/> for information about Fluke (and
Flick, too).
+ L4. The Dresden Real-Time Operating Systems Project (DROPS) extended Flick
to generate optimized stubs based on the L4 microkernel API. For more
information, see <http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/drops/>.
+ Porcupine 1. Porcupine is a scalable SMTP/IMAP server designed for
high-volume mail exchange --- up to one billion messages per day. See
<http://porcupine.cs.washington.edu/porc1/index.html> for more information.
+ The CS 453 `TICS' Group. A group of students in our Department's senior
software lab used Flick to implement RPC for distributed robot control
systems. Flick itself is run on a Unix machine, and the generated IIOP
stubs are compiled for both Unix and Windows NT, enabling cross-platform
communication and development.
A list of known bugs and caveats can be found in `doc/BUGS'. In brief:
+ There are some minor shortcomings with Flick's CORBA components (e.g., no
`wchar' or `wstring' types, missing support for `any's in the C language
IIOP runtime, etc.).
+ There are still some dependencies between the front ends and the
presentation generators. This means that one cannot ``mix and match'' IDLs
and presentation generators. For example, you can't start with a Sun RPC
(a.k.a. ONC RPC) IDL file and get CORBA-like stubs.
+ In principle one can ``mix and match'' different presentations and back
ends, e.g., Sun IDL and presentation could talk IIOP to a similarly
specified system. However, the only unusual combinations that have been
tested recently are CORBA-on-Mach, CORBA-on-Trapeze, and ONC-on-Trapeze.
Other unusual combinations are unlikely to work.
TESTING FLICK / EXAMPLE PROGRAMS
Flick comes with a set of test inputs and example programs in the `test'
subdirectory of the distribution. See the `test/README' file for instructions.
Note that, *except* for the `test/examples/phone' application, the example
programs in `test/examples' are not up to date and may not compile.
You will need 100--200MB of free disk space in order to run the Flick tests.
Refer to the user's manual and the `test/examples/phone' sample application to
learn how to use Flick's IIOP and ONC RPC runtime libraries in your own
programs.
## End of file.
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