inform7/docs-src/compiler.inweb

Title: The Inform 7 compiler
Author: Graham Nelson

@ The task of the Inform 7 compiler is to take natural-language source text
and "transpile" to down to lower-level, more orthodox code which another
compiler can take the rest of the way. Usually, but not necessarily, that
other compiler is the typeless but otherwise C-like Inform 6 (1996-2003).

Inform offers three compiler tools: //inbuild//, //inform7//
and //inter//. These represent the front end (build control, resource
management), the middle part (actual compilation), and the back end (code
generation, assimilation of kits), but really they are three points of access
to the same code base. See //inbuild: Manual//, //inform7: Manual//, //inter: Manual//
and //inbuild: Reference Card//, //inform7: Reference Card//, //inter: Reference Card//.

Each tool has its own CLI (or "command-line interface") but is otherwise
divided up into "modules", many shared between two or even all three tools.
//inform7// contains every module, and is thus the entire compiler, whereas
the other tools are subsets of it:
= (hyperlinked text as BoxArt)
        INBUILD                  INFORM7                   INTER     
    +-------------+          +-------------+          +-------------+    
    |   //inbuild//   |          |   //inform7//   |          |    //inter//    |
    |    (cli)    |          |    (cli)    |          |    (cli)    |
+---+.............+----------+.............+---+      |             |
|  //supervisor//-module                           |      |             |
+---+.............+----------+.............+---+      |             |
    |             |          |             |          |             |
    |             |      +---+.............+---+      |             |
    |             |      |     //core//-module     |      |             |
    |             |      | //inflections//-module  |      |             |
    |             |      | //linguistics//-module  |      |             |
    |             |      |   //problems//-module   |      |             |
    |             |      |    //kinds//-module     |      |             |
    |             |      |      //if//-module      |      |             |
    |             |      |  //multimedia//-module  |      |             |
    |             |      |    //index//-module     |      |             |
    |             |      +---+.............+---+      |             |
    |             |          |             |          |             |
    |             |      +---+.............+----------+.............+---+
    |             |      |                            //bytecode//-module   |
    |             |      |                            //building//-module   |
    |             |      |                            //codegen//-module    |
    +-------------+      +----------------------------------------------+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  SHARED                  shared //syntax//-module                         |
|                          shared //words//-module                          |
|                           shared //arch//-module                          |
|                           shared //html//-module                          |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  FOUNDATION      //foundation//-module (in inweb repository)              |
|                   (Posix or Windows-related functions)                |
|                           (standard C library)                        |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
=
The three tools each use a "shared" library, made up of four modules
providing services useful for natural language-based programs. At one time
this was going to be called "Second Foundation" (or possibly "Foundation
and Empire"), because there is also //foundation// underneath, a C library
of utility functions provided by the //inweb// project.