Bigloo Development Environment

Bigloo release 2.0 or more recent contains an Integrated Development Environment. This environment proposes some services:

The environment relies on Bigloo tools: Each of these tools comes with a dedicated manual page and are not described in this documentation.

Extra tools are required for the environment to go its full speed:

The following document describes the Bee, the Bigloo Emacs Environment.

Installing the Bee

The standard procedure for installing Bigloo handles the compilation of all tools required by the Bee. Additional Emacs-lisp code have to be appended to your .emacs file: 

(autoload 'bdb "bdb" "bdb mode" t)
(autoload 'bee-mode "bee-mode" "bee mode" t)

(setq auto-mode-alist
      (append '(("\\.scm$" . bee-mode)
                ("\\.sch$" . bee-mode)
                ("\\.scme$" . bee-mode)
                ("\\.bgl$" . bee-mode)
                ("\\.bee$" . bee-mode))
              auto-mode-alist))
This code will force emacs to switch to Bee mode when editing Scheme source files.

Entering the Bee

Once, your .emacs is updated, to start the Bee you just need to edit a file suffixed with one of the suffix listed in auto-mode-alist with Emacs. You may either enter the Bee within Emacs with ESC-X: bee-mode.

The Bee Root Directory

The Bee Root Directory is the directory that contains information files that describe a project. When editing a file, the Bee tries to automatically setup the Bee Root Directory. For that, it seeks one of the following file: Makefile, .afile or .etags. This search unwind directories until the root directory is reached or until the number of scanned directories is more than the value of the list variable bee-root-search-depth.

An alternative Bee Root Directory may be set. This is done clicking on the Root of the tool bar icon.

Building a Makefile

Once, the Bee Root Directory has been setup (it is printed on the left part to the Emacs modeline), a Makefile can be automatically produced. It can be achieved clicking on the Mkmf icon of the tool bar, using the popup menu (button-3) entries, or using one of the two keyboard bindings C-c C-c C-a or C-c C-c C-l. When creating a Makefile, you will be asked to give a file name. This file must be the one that is the main entry point of your program or the one that implements an library heap file.

When the Makefile already exists, using the same bindings update Makefile, re-generate .afile and .etags files.

Compiling

Once a Makefile exists, it is possible to compile a program (or a library). Use either the tool bar icon Compile, the popup menu entry or C-c C-c C-c. If no Makefile exists, the Bee will emit a single file compilation.

Interpreting

Scheme source code may be interpreted within the Bee instead of been compiled prior to be executed. This facility could be convenient for fast prototyping. A Read eval print loop (henceforth Repl) could be spawned using the Repl icon of the tool bar, using the popup menu entry or using the C-c C-r C-r binding.

Parts or the whole buffer may be sent to repl.

Pretty Printing

The whole buffer may be pretty printed (long source lines are split) using the Lisp icon of the tool bar, using the popup menu entry of using C-c C-i tab.

Parts or the buffer may be indented (no line is split).

Expansing

For debug purposes, result of the source code macro expansion may be checked within the Bee.

Parts or the whole buffer may be sent to repl.

When a part of the buffer is expanded (by opposition to the whole buffer), the buffer is scan for macro definitions. These macros will be used for expanding the requested form.

On-line Documentation

On-line documentation may be popped up. This is always done, clicking on the Info icon of the tool bar or C-c C-d i. If an emacs region is active, the documentation about that region will be popped up. If the cursor is at a Scheme identifier, the documentation of that identifier will be printed. Otherwise, the user will be prompted for the Section of the documentation to be printed.

Clicking on the ? icon tool bar, pops up a short description of the Bigloo compiler options.

The Bee uses info files for printing On-line documentation. It always search the standard documentation and the standard definition of Scheme. It is possible to add extra info files to be searched. The Bee always checks for a directory info in the Bee Root Directory. If such a directory exists, contained file will be considered for the search of a document.

Searching for Source Code

Searching for source (variable declaration, module definition, variable usage) is supported by the Bee. Clicking on the Find icon of the tool bar will pops up the definition of the variable the cursor is in or the definition of the module the cursor is in. These two operations may be requested using C-x 5 . for searching a variable definition, C-c C-d m for a module definition.

Information and usages of a variable may be printed using either the Doc icon of the tool bar or the C-c C-d u key binding.

Importing and Exporting

Bigloo bindings (functions and variables) may be automatically inserted in an export module clause (see Modules). Bring the cursor to an identifier of a binding that has to be exported then, either click on the Export tool bar icon or use the C-c C-m b key binding.

Bigloo bindings may be automatically inserted in an import module clause. Bring the cursor to an identifier of a binding that has to be imported. Either click on the Import tool bar icon or use the C-c C-m i key binding. The Bee, will search the modules for the wanted binding.

Foreign bindings (e.g. C variables and C functions) may be automatically inserted in the file module clause. Click on the Extern tool bar icon or use the key binding C-c C-m c to import whole the definition of an extern file. You will, be prompted an extern file name to be imported. This operation automatically updates the Makefile for reflecting that the extern file is required in the compilation.

Debugging

The Bigloo symbolic Debugger may be spawned either clicking on the Bdb tool bar icon or using the key binding C-c C-b C-b. Once the debugger is not is possible to connect the current buffer to the debugger. This is done using the tool bar icon Connect or the key binding C-c C-b c. This enables breakpoints to be inserted using mouse clicks.

Profiling

Automatically produced Makefile provides entry for profiling. In order to get a profile you must first compile your application for profiling. This is done using a popup menu entry or the C-c C-p c key binding. Once your program compiled you can run for profile using a popup menu entry of the C-c C-p r key binding. This last will run your program, run bglprof to get the profile and this will pops up a window displaying the profile informations.

Revision Control

Submitting a new revision is done using C-c C-v i or using an menu bar entry. This builds an new revision for the entire project. The file that compose the project are listed in the pop entry of the Bee Root Directory Makefile.

Checking out an older version of the file currently edited is done using the key binding C-c C-v C-o. This is not a retrieval of the entire project. Global check out may be performed manually.

Comparing the version of the file currently edited with older one is done using C-c C-v d. A diff of the two buffers will be popped up.

With both checking out and comparison of versions. A window presenting all the available version will be popped up to let you choose which version you would like to inspect.

Literate Programming

The Bee does not provide real Literate Programming. The reason is that we think that when editing documentation we want to benefit the full power of context-sensitive editors and we don't want to edit the documentation is the same editor mode as the one we use when editing source code. Nevertheless it is possible to place anchors within the source file to the corresponding documentation file. Then, by the means of simple mouse clicks, it becomes possible to edit the documentation of peace of codes. The current Bee literate programming system only supports the Texinfo file format.

For that purpose three anchors are available: path, node and deffn. All anchor have to be delimited with @ characters.