[gecode-users] FlatZinc parser

[Guido Tack]

Morten Boysen wrote:
> Thank you very much for the reply and the hints on where to look. I do
> have another question to you and the other developers of Gecode:  
> What is
> the best environment to develop for Gecode in?

We actually use quite different setups, but none of us uses any IDE  
(neither Eclipse, nor VS, nor XCode).  We're somehow used to working  
with just an editor and a shell.

> I have so far tried to use Visual Studio with the binary installation.
> This works well if I am simply using the interface as provided by the
> headers and dlls in the code.
>
> However, I believe that what I am trying now with the FlatZinc  
> parser is
> a bit unstandard and working with the FlatZinc parser code from within
> Visual Studio (this includes building the code) has proven to be  
> quite a
> hassle.

I think it should be possible (see below).

> I have looked at the mailing list archive and I can see that
> Christian Schulte uses Windows to develop, but the build is performed
> using the GNU toolchain. What editors do you use, and how do you debug
> when you build using the GNU toolchain?

We don't actually use the GNU compiler toolchain on Windows, just the  
Unix tools (make, perl, bash, grep, sed etc).  We compile using cl,  
and debug using the VS debugger.

> Do you have any recommendations on what is easiest if we are  
> planning to
> modify the FlatZinc to Gecode program?

You will need at least some of the GNU tools, because the FlatZinc  
parser is generated using flex/bison.  Compiling the generated stuff  
shouldn't be too hard, actually, even directly from Visual Studio.   
It's not a lot of files, you could just create a Visual Studio project  
with all the files, and then compile and link against the binary  
version of Gecode.

Alternatively, just use Visual Studio as an editor if you're used to  
it, and then compile the stuff using make on the command line.

Cheers,
	Guido