LCC ("Local C Compiler" or "Little C Compiler") is a small,

retargetable compiler In software engineering, retargeting is an attribute of software development tools that have been specifically designed to generate code for more than one computing platform. Compilers A retargetable compiler is a compiler that has been designed ...

for the

ANSI C ANSI C, ISO C, and Standard C are successive standards for the C programming language published by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 22/WG 14 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the ...

programming language. Although its source code is available at no charge for personal use, it is not

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...

according to the usual definitions because products derived from LCC may not be sold, although components not derived from LCC may be sold. It was developed by

Chris Fraser Christopher Neil Fraser (born 15 July 1974) is a British-born Australian businessman. Born in the UK and brought up in Australia, Fraser was an investment banker, before becoming chief executive (CEO) of Sirius Minerals. Fraser was born in Yeo ...

and David Hanson.

LCC

LCC is intended to be very simple to understand and is well-documented; its design is described in Fraser and Hanson's book ''A Retargetable C Compiler: Design and Implementation''. The book includes most of the source code for version 3.6 of the compiler, which was written as a literate program using

noweb Noweb, stylised in lowercase as noweb, is a literate programming tool, created in 1989–1999 by Norman Ramsey, and designed to be simple, easily extensible and language independent. As in WEB and CWEB, the main components of Noweb are two prog ...

. As of July 2011 the current version of LCC is 4.2, but much of the book still applies to this version. The major change since the book was published is in the code-generator interface, which is described in a separate document. The source code for LCC is around 20,000 lines, which is much smaller than many major compilers. LCC can generate code for several processor architectures, including

Alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter ''aleph'' , whose name comes from the West Semitic word for ' ...

, SPARC, MIPS, and

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel, based on the 8086 microprocessor and its 8-bit-external-bus variant, the 8088. Th ...

; there is also an LCC backend that generates Microsoft's

Common Intermediate Language Common Intermediate Language (CIL), formerly called Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) or Intermediate Language (IL), is the intermediate language binary instruction set defined within the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) specification. ...

Projects incorporating LCC

Quake 3

id Software id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: game programmer, programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer T ...

id Tech 3 id Tech 3, popularly known as the ''Quake III Arena'' engine, is a game engine developed by id Software for its 1999 game ''Quake III Arena''. It has subsequently been used in numerous games. Commercially, id Tech 3 competed with early version ...

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ge ...

relies on a modified version of LCC to compile the source code of each game module or third-party

mod Mod, MOD or mods may refer to: Places * Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band * M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US * ...

into

bytecode Bytecode (also called portable code or p-code) is a form of instruction set designed for efficient execution by a software interpreter. Unlike human-readable source code, bytecodes are compact numeric codes, constants, and references (normal ...

targeting its

virtual machine In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization or emulator, emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide the functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve ...

. This means that modules are oblivious to the system beyond the

system call In computing, a system call (syscall) is the programmatic way in which a computer program requests a service from the operating system on which it is executed. This may include hardware-related services (for example, accessing a hard disk drive ...

s and limited file system scope offered by the engine, which is intended to reduce the threat posed by malicious mod authors. Another consideration is that games and mods written for the engine are

portable Portable may refer to: General * Portable building, a manufactured structure that is built off site and moved in upon completion of site and utility work * Portable classroom, a temporary building installed on the grounds of a school to provide a ...

without recompilation; only the virtual machine needs to be

ported In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desig ...

to new platforms in order to execute the modules.

lcc-win

lcc-win32 is an

integrated development environment An integrated development environment (IDE) is a Application software, software application that provides comprehensive facilities for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source-code editor, build automation tools, an ...

package for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

which includes a

fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods either to h ...

of LCC. An

amd64 x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit extension of the x86 instruction set. It was announced in 1999 and first available in the AMD Opteron family in 2003. It introduces two new operating modes: 64-bit mode an ...

counterpart named lcc-win64 exists, which has been available since April 15, 2012.

Pelles C

Pelles C The Fisher King (; ; ; ) is a figure in Arthurian legend, the last in a long line of British kings tasked with guarding the Holy Grail. The Fisher King is both the protector and physical embodiment of his lands, but a wound renders him impotent ...

's compiler is a heavily modified version of LCC providing C11 as well as C17 support, amd64 support, additional optimisation techniques such as

inline expansion In computing, inline expansion, or inlining, is a manual or compiler optimization that replaces a function call site with the body of the called function. Inline expansion is similar to macro expansion, but occurs during compiling, without cha ...

Pelles C Overview
/ref> and an IDE.

MathWorks

For 32-bit Windows machines, Lcc is used as a default if no other compiler is installed for

MathWorks The MathWorks, Inc. is an American privately held corporation that specializes in mathematical computing software. Its major products include MATLAB and Simulink, which support data analysis and simulation. History MATLAB was created in the 1 ...

MATLAB MATLAB (an abbreviation of "MATrix LABoratory") is a proprietary multi-paradigm programming language and numeric computing environment developed by MathWorks. MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementat ...

and related products.

License

LCC is free for personal use and may be redistributed provided all distribution media and product documentation acknowledges it. The LCC license relies on examples in multiple cases. LCC may not be sold for profit, but it may be included with other software that is sold for profit, provided LCC itself is distributed for free. Per user and unlimited use licenses are available by contacting Addison-Wesley, in particular for compilers of languages such as C++ for which a C compiler may constitute much of its work.

LCC

Projects incorporating LCC

Quake 3

lcc-win

Pelles C

MathWorks

License

See also

References

External links

Bibliography