Scripting language for code blocks

Question

I got code::blocks as my C/C++ compiler along with C++ for dummies, but my only problem is with a obscure scripting language that I have never heard of before; "Squirrel". Is it possible to change the scripting language of code::blocks to something more familiar to me, like lua?

Answer 1

It seems doable in theory. Whether it is doable in practice, hard to say. Here is what you would need to do:

1. create a folder src/sdk/scripting/lua in which you put the Lua interpreter (+ Lua libraries like io, math etc) source code and create project file for it
2. create a folder in src/sdk/scripting/lua_bindings where you put your Lua bindings: the C++ files that allow Lua scripts access to the host application. I recommend you use a tool like SWIG to generate them (codeblocks uses SqPlus). This involves determining what code-blocks functions/classes you want to export, creating one or more .i files, running SWIG on them, put the generated files going into "lua_bindings"; create a DLL project for the bindings
3. Create a src/lua_scripts in which you put the Lua equivalent of scripts found in src/scripts; or rather, a subset of those scripts, because it is unlikely you will want to export to Lua everything that is available via Squirrel if you're just following examples from a book
4. Find where Squirrel interpreter is instantiated in codeblocks and where RegisterBindings is called; replace it with instantiation of a Lua interpreter and call your luaopen_codeblocks which you will have created via SWIG (no need for a RegisterLuaBindings if you use SWIG, it does that for you)

5. Find where the various scripts are called by codeblocks (see http://wiki.codeblocks.org/index.php?title=Scripting_Code::Blocks). Call the equivalent Lua scripts (which are in lua_scripts -- you'll surely have to copy this to the installation folder for code-blocks). For example the startup.script, which is the Squirrel script that codeblocks automatically looks for at startup, is run by the following code in src/src/app.cpp:

   // run startup script
   try
   {
       wxString startup = ConfigManager::LocateDataFile(_T("startup.script"), sdScriptsUser | sdScriptsGlobal);
       if (!startup.IsEmpty())
           Manager::Get()->GetScriptingManager()->LoadScript(startup);
   }
   catch (SquirrelError& exception)
   {
       Manager::Get()->GetScriptingManager()->DisplayErrors(&exception);
   }
   

I think that's about it.

Naturally based on how extensive your scripting is, you may cut some corners, but as you can see, this is not for the faint of heart!