+-------------------------------------+
|                                     |
| Installing BaCon 5.0.4              |
|                                     |
+-------------------------------------+

(1) How to execute the configure script

LINUX
=====

To install BaCon on your system, either KSH build >2012, ZSH >4.x or
BASH >4.x must be available on your system. Start by running the 
configure script as follows:

# ./configure

This will create the Makefile for the BaCon version of BaCon. Note that
KSH and ZSH are a lot faster converting the code compared to BASH.

Some older Linux distributions may require to use BASH, this can be forced
as follows:

# ./configure --enable-bash

The configure script also tries to autodetect the toolkit required to build 
the GUI. If no toolkit is found then one can be forced as follows:

# ./configure --enable-gui-gtk3

Alternatively TK:

# ./configure --enable-gui-tk

Or FLTK:

# ./configure --enable-gui-fltk

Or the legacy GUI:

# ./configure --enable-gui-legacy

To build all the GUI versions:

# ./configure --enable-gui-all

The configure script allows certain options. To see them all then
execute the configure script as follows:

# ./configure --help


OPENBSD
=======

On BSD type systems, the following line works to compile with clang:

# CXXFLAGS="-x c++" CC=clang CXX=clang++ ./configure

To set correct flags for FLTK, and using clang, the following command should work:

# CPPFLAGS="$(fltk-config --cxxflags)" CXXFLAGS="$(fltk-config --cxxflags) -x c++" LDFLAGS="$(fltk-config --ldflags)" CC=clang CXX=clang++ ./configure --enable-gui-fltk


MACOSX
======

The FLTK library can be obtained from the mac app store: http://macappstore.org/fltk/

Then, the following configure command should be sufficient:

# CXXFLAGS="-x c++" ./configure --enable-gui-fltk


Raspberry PI/ARM
================

The following configure command should work, make sure FLTK is available on your system:

# CXXFLAGS="-x c++" ./configure --enable-gui-fltk


ANDROID / TERMUX
================

# CXXFLAGS="-x c++" ./configure --prefix=$HOME/../usr


HAIKU
=====

# ./configure --prefix=/boot/home/config/non-packaged --datadir=/boot/home/config/non-packaged/data


(2) Makefile
    
The 'configure' script checks the requirements on your system and should
finish successfully. A Makefile will be generated.

Then start building the BaCon binary by executing:

# make


(3) Installation
    
Then, to install BaCon, simply execute:

# make install

On Ubuntu based systems, use sudo:

# sudo make install


(4) Compiling the BaCon source code with g++

To compile BaCon with a C++ compiler, extra flags need to be added:

# bacon -c g++ -o -Wno-write-strings -o -Wno-pointer-arith bacon


+-------------------------------------+
|                                     |
| Performance considerations          |
|                                     |
+-------------------------------------+

BaCon relies heavily on dynamic memory allocation functions. The standard libC functions
malloc/calloc/realloc/free are designed for general purpose applications.

To make use of an exernal memory allocator when compiling BaCon, it is possible
to pass the appropriate library name before running the './configure' script.


- Example with 'jemalloc':

# LDFLAGS=-ljemalloc ./configure --enable-gui-gtk --enable-gui-fltk --enable-gui-tk

Or in Ubuntu:

# LDFLAGS=-l:libjemalloc.so.2 ./configure --enable-gui-gtk --enable-gui-fltk --enable-gui-tk


- Example with 'tcmalloc':

# LDFLAGS=-ltcmalloc ./configure --enable-gui-gtk --enable-gui-fltk --enable-gui-tk

On Ubuntu based systems:

# LDFLAGS=-l:libtcmalloc.so.4 ./configure --enable-gui-gtk --enable-gui-fltk --enable-gui-tk

Or:

# LDFLAGS=-l:libtcmalloc_minimal.so.4 ./configure --enable-gui-all

The resulting BaCon binary now usually will show a performance increase
between 10%-20% depending on system architecture.

To use an external memory allocator with a BaCon program, just pass the library
in the '-l' argument:

# bacon -l tcmalloc <prog.bac>

Or:

# bacon -l:libtcmalloc.so.4 <prog.bac>


- Example with 'mimalloc':

On Ubuntu based systems:

# LDFLAGS=-l:libmimalloc.so.2 ./configure --enable-gui-gtk --enable-gui-fltk --enable-gui-tk


To always use an external memory allocator when compiling BaCon programs, store the command
line configuration one time using '-w':

# bacon -l tcmalloc -w <prog.bac>

Subsequent uses of BaCon now always will include the external memory allocation library.

+-------------------------------------+
|                                     |
| Compile for 32-bit in 64-bit env    |
|                                     |
+-------------------------------------+

Install the multilib package (Debian/Ubuntu/Mint):

# sudo apt-get install gcc-multilib

Then compile the program as follows:

# bacon -o -m32 -l -m32 bacon

+-------------------------------------+
|                                     |
| Compiling with TCC can fail         |
|                                     |
+-------------------------------------+

Compiling with TCC fails in regex.h from libc. This happens for TCC versions after commit 56b32251. 

Solution is to define the '__STDC_NO_VLA__' macro in the command line:

# bacon -c tcc -o -D__STDC_NO_VLA__ <prog.bac>

+-------------------------------------+
|                                     |
| Compatibility with earlier versions |
|                                     |
+-------------------------------------+

Though the BASIC syntax and API has undergone only 2 minor changes over
more than 10 years, it occasionally may happen that older programs cannot be
converted. The following hints should help to troubleshoot such problems.

(1) Starting from 3.0, BaCon uses a new and optimized variable detection
mechanism. This mechanism is faster and more precise. Now global variables
with a certain name cannot be used in combination with local variables
using the same name. This is known as 'variable shadowing' and considered
to be confusing. It is not supported in BaCon.

Solution: either change the name of the global variable, or consistently
declare variables using LOCAL.

(2) The IF/THEN/ELSE statement can be used in two ways. The first way
is an IF/THEN/ELSE which contains a body with statements, ending with an
ENDIF. The second way is an IF/THEN/ELSE containing one single statement
on the same line, where no ENDIF is needed.

The problem is that it cannot be detected which ELSE belongs to which IF
in case of nested IF/THEN/ELSE statements.

Solution: combinations of IF/THEN/ELSE with a body and without a body
are not allowed anymore. Such combinations of IF/THEN/ELSE have to be
rewritten. Either use IF/THEN/ELSE each with a body, or use IF/THEN/ELSE
each with a single line.

(3) As of BaCon 3.7 the syntax for the RESIZE statement has changed.

+-------------------------------------+
|                                     |
| A note to beta testers              |
|                                     |
+-------------------------------------+

Before installing BaCon, please make sure that old beta versions of
the BaCon archives are removed from your system. These archives have the
names 'libbacon.a' and 'libbacon++.a'.

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Greetings
Peter van Eerten

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
