How to convert C++ Code to C

user_2759376 0
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I have some C++ code. In the code there are many classes defined, their member functions, constructors, destructors for those classes, few template classes and lots of C++ stuff. Now I need to convert the source to plain C code.

I the have following questions:

  1. Is there any tool to convert C++ code and header files to C code?

  2. Will I have to do total rewrite of the code (I will have to remove the constructors,destructors and move that code into some init(), deinit() functions; change classes to structures, make existing member functions as function pointers in those newly defined structures and then invoke those functions using function pointers etc..)?

  3. If I have to convert it manually myself, what C++ specific code-data constructs/semantics do I need to pay attention to while doing the conversion from C++ to C?

code-translation c c++
6 Answers

There is indeed such a tool, Comeau's C++ compiler. . It will generate C code which you can't manually maintain, but that's no problem. You'll maintain the C++ code, and just convert to C on the fly.

MSalters_154160

http://llvm.org/docs/FAQ.html#translatecxx

It handles some code, but will fail for more complex implementations as it hasn't been fully updated for some of the modern C++ conventions. So try compiling your code frequently until you get a feel for what's allowed.

Usage sytax from the command line is as follows for version 9.0.1:

clang -c CPPtoC.cpp -o CPPtoC.bc -emit-llvm
clang -march=c  CPPtoC.bc -o CPPtoC.c

For older versions (unsure of transition version), use the following syntax:

llvm-g++ -c CPPtoC.cpp -o CPPtoC.bc -emit-llvm
llc -march=c  CPPtoC.bc -o CPPtoC.c

Note that it creates a GNU flavor of C and not true ANSI C. You will want to test that this is useful for you before you invest too heavily in your code. For example, some embedded systems only accept ANSI C.

Also note that it generates functional but fairly unreadable code. I recommend commenting and maintain your C++ code and not worrying about the final C code.

EDIT : although official support of this functionality was removed, but users can still use this unofficial support from Julia language devs, to achieve mentioned above functionality.

user_17106720

While you can do OO in C (e.g. by adding a theType *this first parameter to methods, and manually handling something like vtables for polymorphism) this is never particularly satisfactory as a design, and will look ugly (even with some pre-processor hacks).

I would suggest at least looking at a re-design to compare how this would work out.

Overall a lot depends on the answer to the key question: if you have working C++ code, why do you want C instead?

Richard_673920
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