1. Architecture of a Scilab Module (Scilab 5.x and 6.X)

This information may not be up-to-date. Please check howto/Create a toolbox for more up-to-date information

A module can be Scilab macros, java,Tcl/Tk, C, C++ and/or Fortran code. A module can (and should) contains other things like demos, help, unitary tests... This applies to Scilab 5.X. Scilab 4.X is completely different.

1.1. Description

A Scilab module should be composed like this:

Mandatory files:

• changelog.txt
• licence.txt
• Makefile.am
• Makefile.in (generated from Makefile.am by automake)
• xxxx.vcproj
• version.xml
• readme.txt

• etc/<module>.start

• etc/<module>.quit

• includes/gw_<module>.h

• sci_gateway/xxx/gw_<module>.c

• sci_gateway/<module>_gateway.xml

Optional files:

• locales/en_US/<module>.po (this file is usually generated by SCI/tools/localization/updateLocalizationModule.sh)

1.2. Conception

The name of the module itself is quite important. It is must be composed only by letters, numbers and a just two special characters (_ or -). In the examples below, the module will be called <my_module_name>.

1.3. Guidelines

• Function profiles should be declared in a .h in src/<language/ if they are local to the module. If the function can be used from an other modules, the header file should be put into includes/

• extern should be avoid. Prefer header file instead (.h)
• When a C function is created and can be called by fortran, don't forget to add the macros C2F around the name of the function.
• No warning in debug mode (-Wall) should be reached.

1.3.1. Rules for function profile & header declarations

• if the function is only used in the current file, put the declaration only in the C file

• if the function is used in the module only, create an header file (.h) with the same name as the C/C++ file into the <module>/src/c/ directory

• if the function is used (or will be) elsewhere in Scilab, create an header file (.h) with the same name as the C/C++ file into the <module>/includes/ directory

1.4. How to develop a new internal module Step by Step

• Create directory SCI/modules/<my_module_name>

• Create directory SCI/modules/<my_module_name>/etc : It will contain starting and stoping files

  • Create a <my_module_name>.start file

  • Create a <my_module_name>.quit file

• Create a VERSION file

• Create a readme.txt file

• Create a license.txt file

• Create a changelog.txt file

• edit SCI/etc/modules.xml and add a new line with the information of your module in the list.

• Create the Makefile.am file (you can copy it from an other module)

• Edit the SCI/configure.ac file, look for AC_CONFIG_FILES and add modules/<my_module_name>/Makefile into the list

• Edit the SCI/modules/Makefile.am and add to SUBDIRS <my_module_name>

• Edit the SCI/modules/core/includes/callinterf.h and add #include "../../<my_module_name>/includes/gw_<my_module_name>.h" to the list

• Edit the SCI/modules/core/src/c/callinterf.c and add {gw_<my_module_name>} to the list. Update INTERFACES_MAX++

• In SCI, launch autoreconf (you will need at least the version 2.68 of autoconf and 1.11 of automake)

• If you need your library to be added into Scilab dynamic library, into SCI/modules/Makefile.am, add \$(top_builddir)/modules/<my_module_name>/lib<my_module_name>.la to the variable libscilab_la_LIBADD

• In SCI/modules/<my_module_name>/sci_gateway/c/, create a gw_<my_module_name>.c, this file should contain the match between the Scilab function and the C/C++/Fortran function. For example :

static OptimTable Tab[]=
{
{C2F(sci_optim),"optim"},
{C2F(sci_semidef),"semidef"},
{C2F(sci_fsolve),"fsolve"}
};

• In SCI/modules/<my_module_name>/includes/, create a gw_<my_module_name>.h, this file should contain the Scilab connector (copy/paste from an other) and also the list of all functions used in the Table defined in gw_<my_module_name>.c. '

• Matching to the list of functions, create the file SCI/modules/<my_module_name>/sci_gateway/<my_module_name>_gateway.xml to list all the function which will be available in Scilab

• If the contains Java source files, then the file SCI/modules/prebuildjava/build.xml must be modified (target tag).

TODO : create a skeleton for this

1.4.1. Macro module

genlib(<21 characters of module's name> + 'lib','SCI/modules/elementaries_functions/macros');

example : elementaries_functions module

genlib('elementaries_functionlib','SCI/modules/elementaries_functions/macros');