Most important about ACDK

ACDK is a free C++ library supporting many Java idioms and functionality.
ACDK has strong support in integration of scripting and distributed technologies.

Content of this chapter:

   Downloads
   Requirements
     Platforms
     Compiler
   License
   Installation
   Packages
   Features

Downloads

Please refer to the

Downloads section for the last recent relaeses.
Please refer to

Download/Support for more information.

Requirements

Platforms

Currently, the following platforms are being supported:

Windows NT/XP
Sun Solaris
Linux
BSD
MaxOS (planned)

Additional unix- platforms will be available upon request.
See also

Porting ACDK to other platforms.

Compiler

The following C++ compilers are currently being supported:

Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 (SP3)
Microsoft Visual C++ .NET (aka VC 7.0)
Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2005 (aka VC 8.0)
GCC g++ 2.95.2 - 3.x

Ports on other compilers have been successfully transferred.

Sun Workshop 6
Borland C++ 5.5
Borland C++ 6
Borland C++ X

ACDK has originally been produced in a pure ANSI C++, so that other ports should possible without complications.

License

ACDK is available under the LGPL license.
Please refer to

License.

This page will be included by acdk_about_features and acdk_hb_onepage
ACDK is a set of class libraries with currently about 56 MB source code in 3,000 files with about 1,500,000 lines of codes and 5,000 classes.

Core Features
- Java like language constructs in C++
  - Garbage Collection for Objects
  - Java like object modell with classes and interfaces
- Source code is pure C++
- Provided for many major plattforms:
  - Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003
  - Linux
  - FreeBSD
  - Solaris
- Java like core library
  - java.lang -> acdk::lang
  - java.lang.ref -> acdk::lang::ref
  - java.lang.reflect -> acdk::lang::reflect
  - java.io -> acdk::io (with limitation)
  - java.util -> acdk::util
  - java.util.logging -> acdk::util::logging
  - java.text -> acdk::text
  - java.net -> acdk::net
  - javax.net.ssl -> acdkx::net::ssl
  - java.locale -> acdk::locale (additionally character encodings)
  - java.security -> acdk::security
  - java.sql -> acdk::sql
  - org.xml.sax, org.w3c.dom -> org::xml::sax, org::w3c::dom, org::w3c::dom::xpath.
  - ...
- Standard Java Features
  - Unicode support with several character encodings
  - Threads
  - Objects with wait and notify/notifyAll
  - Synchronization of methods or blocks
  - Exceptions with Backtrace
  - Java like arrays from classes and basic atomic types (like int)
  - Locale support.
- Enhancement relative to Java
  - Object variables as stack variables with better performance
  - Extensionable string encoding framework in acdk::locale.
  - Function argument attributes IN, OUT, INOUT, BYVAL, BYVALIN, BYVALOUT, BYVALINOUT
  - Enhanced Allocator concept and customizable Garbage Collection.
  - Connectable Information to every language definition part (classes, methods, parameter, and so on) as Attributes.
  - Many string Convience methods integrated in the acdk::lang::String.
- Reflection
  - Runtime Information about:
    - class name, namespace, base classes and public/private
    - Member, static, public/protected/private, Type of member, name of member
    - Constructor with arguments (see methods)
    - Methods, static, public/protected/private, with type of of return value, type and name of argument, throw specifications.
    - Attributes similar to to C# Attributes and Java Annotations.
  - Load classes and library by name
- Dynamic Method Invocation Interface (DMI).
  - create objects by class name
  - Read/Write normal and static member variables identified by name
  - Invoke normal and static methods, identified by name.
- Serialization and Persistenz
  - Serialisation of objects
  - Save Objects to binary or XML.
  - serialized_clone (shallow and deep)
  - serialized_equals
  - Java compatible serialization of Objects (included in acdk_java).
Further library based features
- Enhanced IO library byte and char based
  - All IO-Classes implements Reader/Writer CharReader/CharWriter interfaces
  - all IO-Classes implements FilterReader/FilterWriter or Storage interface
  - Free combination and chaining of Readers/Writers
- Enhanced File interface
  - Interface to different file systems.
    - Normal OS file system
    - Ressource file system embedded in an executable or library
    - ZIP file system for ZIP archives
    - TAR file system for TAR archives
    - FTP file system for remote internet file access
    - HTTP(S) url file system.
- Networking
  - TCP client/server Sockets
  - UDP client/server Sockets
  - SSL Sockets
  - HTTP URLs
  - HTTPS URLs
- Regular Pattern matching.
- Regular Pattern matching
- XML Handling
  - Parsing using SAX(2) Interfaces
  - Parsing to DOM
  - Validating XML files
  - Selecting XML using XPath
  - Building in memory DOM trees
  - Serialize/Deserialize ACDK Objects to/from XML
  - dom4j like extentions for the standard dom modell.
- JDBC like Database connectivity
  - integrated file based SQLite desktop database
  - ODBC databases on Windows
  - MS SQL 2000
  - MySQL
  - Oracle
  - Postgres
Configuration - Tests - Debugging
- Plattform neutral make files, generating Makefiles for gmake, bsd make, nmake, Microsoft Visual Studio (.dsw/.dsp).
- Regression tests through a unit test concept.
- Documentation system following JavaDoc convention
- Online Reference and HTML-Help.
- Integrated Tracing and Logging with log4j like framework.
- Online Debugger (Alpha)
  - view Dump of all ACDK objects in a hierarchical view grouped in static global data and working sets of the threads.
  - Modify value while system is running.
  - Trace monitor.
  - Object Tracer
  - Garbage Collector Monitor
  - Object Profiler
  - Telnet Lisp/CfgScript console to
    - inspect data
    - modify data
    - calling Objects methods
Integration of Scripting
- All ACDK object can be invoked with scripting languages without any further stub or interface code using ACDK DMI facility.
  - with CfgScript (build in Java/JavaScript like interpreter)
  - with Lisp (build in interpreter)
  - with Java
  - with Perl
  - with Tcl
  - with Python
  - with VBScript (Windows only)
  - with JavaScript (Windows only)
  - with Visual Basic (Windows only)
- Embedding a full featured script interpreter into ACDK:
  - with CfgScript
  - Lisp
  - Perl
  - Java
  - Tcl
  - Python
  - JavaScript
  - VBScript
Platform independed GUI programming
- Create rich GUIs for Windows and Unix
- Using ACDK WX to create GUI application in ACDK C++ or CfgScript.
Integration of Distributed Computing
- CORBA
  - Most classes and interfaces can be used as CORBA server object implementation without any further programming or code generation.
  - Embedded Generation of Skeleton and Stub for native simple and powerfull ACDK language mapping (similar to Java language mapping).
  - DII, DSI and IR support for any ACDK class.
  - Most CORBA objects can be used in ACDK, without further Skeleton or Stub
  - Enhanced CORBA Object communication for ACDK object supporting function overloading using IIOP.
- COM
  - All classes and interfaces can be used as COM/ActiveX component implementation without any further programming or code generation.
  - All ActiveX components can be easely used in ACDK without any further programming or code generation using a simple and powerfull language mapping.
  - An VBScript or JavaScript-Interpreter can be embedded in your application.
  - Planned: Full access to ActiveX components from Linux, Solaris, MacOS X and FreeBSD without any further programming or code generation.
  - Planned: Full access to Server components running Linux, Solaris, MacOS X and FreeBSD through DCOM from Windows
- Transparent, buildin Remote Method Calls via ACDK RDMI.
- .NET / C-Sharp (Planned)
  - Full access to .NET libraries without any programming or code generation.
  - All ACDK classes can be called through any .NET language without any programming or code generation.
  - Planned: Integration of .NET application (server or client) on Linux, Solaris, MacOS X and FreeBSD.
- XML-RPC (Planned)
  - Full-Featured remote invokation using XML and TCP/IP
- Enhanced SOAP (Planned)
  - Standard SOAP HTTP-Server
  - Static methods of ACDK classes can be called via SOAP
  - Enhancements for Distributed Computing not addressed in SOAP
Full interaction between the scripting languages and Distributed Computing technologies
- Steer CORBA objects through ActiveX clients
- Control DCOM application through CORBA clients
- using Perl to control ActiveX applications
- using Visual Basic to use CORBA server application
- Use Scripting to implement C++ Interfaces, derive from C++ classes.
- Use Script classes to serve as COM/CORBA server objects.
- and many other combinations ....