<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ANSI_X3.4-1968"><title>1.2. Compiling files</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="ecl.css" type="text/css"><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.75.2"><link rel="home" href="index.html" title="The ECL manual"><link rel="up" href="ch24.html" title="Chapter 1. Building programs"><link rel="prev" href="ch24.html" title="Chapter 1. Building programs"><link rel="next" href="ch24s03.html" title="1.3. Building standalone executables"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">1.2. Compiling files</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="ch24.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 1. Building programs</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="ch24s03.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></div><div class="section" title="1.2. Compiling files"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="Internals-Compiling-files"></a>1.2. Compiling files</h2></div></div></div><p><span class="application">ECL</span> supports two types of compilation. One is bytecodes compilation. This
process is performed on-the-fly, as you load source files with lisp code. This
leads to a series of bytes for each instruction, the so called
"bytecodes". These bytecodes are interpreted in a virtual machine, which is
written in C and which is reasonably fast.</p><p>The other type of compilation is the so-called "native" compilation. This
process consists on translating the lisp source file to C language. The
intermediate file is later compiled using a C compiler. The result is an object
file which may have different purposes.</p><div class="variablelist"><table border="0"><col align="left" valign="top"><tbody><tr><td><p><span class="term">Dynamically loadable files or FASL (FASt Loadable) files</span></p></td><td><p>These are produced in a <span class="application">ECL</span> built with support for dynamically loadable
libraries (Feature <em class="replaceable"><code>:DLOPEN</code></em> is in <em class="replaceable"><code>*features*</code></em>), when no extra
arguments are passed to <code class="literal">compile-file</code>. These object files typically have
the <code class="filename">.fas</code> extension, and can be loaded with <code class="literal">load</code>. They cannot be used
to build libraries nor standalone executable programs.</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><span class="term">linkable object files</span></p></td><td><p>These are produced when invoking <code class="literal">compile-file</code> with the keyword argument
<em class="replaceable"><code>:system-p</code></em> set to true. The object file typically has the <code class="filename">.o</code>
extension. It cannot be loaded with <code class="literal">load</code>, but it can be used to build
libraries, standalone executable programs, or larger FASL files.</p></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="ch24.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="ch24.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="ch24s03.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Chapter 1. Building programs </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> 1.3. Building standalone executables</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
