TEC (Template Extension Compiler)

TEC is a source code preprocessing system. TEC adds syntax of C++ like templates to pure C. TEC reads C source files. If it finds one or more template declarations it produces a C source file containing the implementation of those templates.

Important! TEC doesn't replace C preprocessor. For TEC to work correctly, the C source files mustn't contain comments, and the #include directives must be replaced with the contents of the header files. In this way, TEC works with output of C preprocessor.

The sequence of steps is as follows:

C preprocessor -> TEC -> C compiler

The source code is published under BSD 2-clause, the license is available here.

Usage

Let's have a look at examples.

Example 1

The following code contains templates of generic function declaration and definition:

template <typename T>
T max(T a, T b);

template <typename T>
T max(T a, T b) {
    return ((a > b) ? a : b);
}

int main(void) {
    printf("%d\n", max<int>(11, 22));
    printf("%f\n", max<double>(11.1, 22.2));
    return 0;
}

TEC will convert it to next source:

int max_int(int a, int b);

double max_double(double a, double b);

int max_int(int a, int b) {
    return ((a > b) ? a : b);
}

double max_double(double a, double b) {
    return ((a > b) ? a : b);
}

int main(void) {
    printf("%d\n", max_int(0, 0));
    printf("%f\n", max_double(11.1, 22.2));
    return 0;
}

Example 2

The next code contain generic struct of list using templates:

template <typename T>
typedef struct node_s<T> node_t<T>;

template <typename T>
struct node_s {
    T data;
    node_t<T> *next;
    node_t<T> *prev;
};

template <typename T>
typedef struct {
    node_t<T> *head;
    node_t<T> *tail;
} list_t;


int main(void) {
    list_t<int> l1;
    list_t<double> l2;
    return 0;
}

The code after processing by the TEC will look like this:

typedef struct node_s_int node_t_int;

typedef struct node_s_double node_t_double;

struct node_s_int {
    int data;
    node_t_int *next;
    node_t_int *prev;
};

struct node_s_double {
    double data;
    node_t_double *next;
    node_t_double *prev;
};

typedef struct {
    node_t_int *head;
    node_t_int *tail;
} list_t_int;

typedef struct {
    node_t_double *head;
    node_t_double *tail;
} list_t_double;


int main(void) {
    list_t_int l1;
    list_t_double l2;
    return 0;
}

Supported compilers

TEC can work with the following compilers:

• GCC
• Clang
• MinGW

Supported systems

• GNU/Linux
• FreeBSD
• macOS
• Windows 7 and above