This announces version 2.1 of Flick, the Flexible IDL Compiler Kit, from our DARPA-supported Flux Project at the University of Utah. Flick generates code that runs significantly faster than code from other IDL compilers, supports 3 IDLs, 6 transports, and has been tested on many UNIX variants and Windows. CHANGES SINCE FLICK 2.0 ----------------------- Flick 2.1 incorporates several new features, bug fixes, and a major new document on Flick's internals. Most notably: + Flick now generates optimized C++ stubs that work with TAO version 1.0, the real-time, open source ORB from Washington University in St. Louis. (The previous release of Flick supported TAO 0.3.23.) You will need to acquire a copy of TAO 1.0 in order to make use of Flick's C++ stubs. For information about TAO, see . + Flick's generated C and C++ files are now smaller --- often much smaller! Flick now eliminates unnecessary functions (internal marshal and unmarshal functions) from generated code. + The Flick Programmer's Manual (a.k.a. ``The Guts Manual'') has been completely rewritten and expanded. This manual is essential reading for anyone who wants to hack on Flick or create new Flick compiler components. WHAT IS FLICK? -------------- Flick is an interface definition language (IDL) compiler ("stub generator") supporting remote procedure call (RPC) and remote method invocation (RMI) for client/server or distributed object systems. What sets it apart from other IDL compilers is that it is highly optimizing while also supporting several IDLs, message formats, and transport mechanisms. Flick currently has front ends for the CORBA, Sun ONC RPC, and Mach MIG IDLs, and middle and back ends that support CORBA IIOP, ONC/TCP, MIG-style Mach messages, Duke's gigabit "Trapeze" protocol, and the Fluke microkernel IPC. (See the Flick Web page for references.) Flick produces C stubs for all IDLs and both C and C++ stubs for CORBA IDL. Substantial user and programmer manuals are provided. Flick is designed to be a "kit": the user picks the IDL, language mapping, and transport components that are required for any particular system. Our goal is to make it straightforward to add new components to the kit to process new IDLs, language mappings, and transports. (Collaborators welcome!) Flick's framework can also be used to support interface annotation. Full source for the Flick compiler is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License; source for the Flick runtime is distributed under a separate license (BSD-style, but without the advertising clause). Our PLDI '97 paper (see ) showed that Flick-generated marshal and unmarshal code can run between 2 and 17 times as fast as code produced by many other IDL compilers, both commercial and free. On stock hardware and operating systems, Flick-generated stubs can increase end-to-end client/server throughput by factors between 1.2 and 3.7 or more. Please read our PLDI '97 paper for the full presentation of these results. Full regression tests and their outputs are provided. Flick has been compiled and tested on the following platforms: FreeBSD 3.0-CURRENT (Intel Pentium II, gcc/g++ 2.95.1) FreeBSD 3.0-CURRENT (Intel Pentium II, gcc/g++ 2.7.2.1) Linux 2.2.12 (Intel Pentium II, egcs 1.1.2) SunOS 5.7 (Solaris) (Sun 4u SPARC, gcc/g++ 2.8.0) SunOS 5.7 (Solaris) (Sun 4u SPARC, Sun WorkShop C/C++ 5.0) SunOS 5.7 (Solaris) (Sun 4u SPARC, Sun WorkShop C/C++ 4.2) 4.3+ BSD (HP 9000/J210XC PA-RISC 1.1, gcc/g++ 2.7.2) IRIX64 6.5 (SGI Origin 2000, MIPSpro 64-bit C/C++ 7.30) Windows 95 (egcs 1.1 w/Cygnus' Cygwin library b20.1) Windows NT 4.0 (egcs 1.1 w/Cygnus' Cygwin library b20.1) Flick has not been compiled on these platforms, but Flick-generated stubs have been tested and work: Mach 3.0/Lites (x86) Fluke OS (x86) (In addition to supporting standard operating systems and protocols, Flick is also the IDL compiler for our "Fluke" kernel and operating system. See .) WHAT FLICK IS NOT ----------------- Flick is not a complete CORBA ORB. Flick has an *extremely* minimal ORB-like runtime, and further, Flick cannot currently replace the IDL compiler that is part of any commercial ORB --- although Flick *does* generate optimized stubs for TAO, the real-time ORB from Washington University in St. Louis. Similarly, Flick is not (yet) a drop-in replacement for `rpcgen' or MIG. The details can be found in the distribution documentation. GETTING FLICK ------------- Flick is available from and from . The Flick 2.1 distribution is divided into two parts: full source (`flick-2.1-src.tar.gz', 1.8MB compressed, 9.0MB uncompressed) and regression test output (`flick-2.1-tests.tar.gz', 5.4MB compressed, 96.0MB uncompressed). MAILING LISTS ------------- We welcome comments and technical discussion from users and collaborators. If you start using Flick, please let us know by subscribing to our mailing list of Flick users. Send mail to with the message body containing the line subscribe flick-users to get on the mailing list. Send bugs and fixes to . CREDITS ------- Thanks to a fine team of staff and students who have produced Flick, including Eric Eide, James Simister, Tim Stack, Eric Pabst, Kevin Frei, and Bryan Ford. The work is primarily sponsored by DARPA, with additional support by Novell and IBM. Jay Lepreau Eric Eide University of Utah Computer Science Dept. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Flick LSM entry: Begin3 Title: Flick Version: 2.1 Entered-date: 15NOV99 Description: Flick is a flexible, optimizing IDL compiler kit that supports multiple IDLs (CORBA IDL, Sun ONC RPC `rpcgen' IDL, Mach MIG IDL), multiple language mappings (CORBA-style, ONC RPC-style, and MIG-style), and multiple RPC/RMI transport mechanisms (CORBA IIOP, ONC/TCP, Mach 3.0 messages, Trapeze, and Fluke IPC). Flick produces marshal/unmarshal code that is significantly faster than equivalent code produced by other IDL compilers. Keywords: IDL interface definition language compiler RPC RMI CORBA ONC rpcgen MIG Author: flick@cs.utah.edu (Utah Flick Team) Maintained-by: flick-bugs@cs.utah.edu (Flick Bugs List) Primary-site: flux.cs.utah.edu /flux/flick/2.1 1839k flick-2.1-src.tar.gz 5537k flick-2.1-tests.tar.gz Platforms: C, C++, UNIX Copying-policy: GPL for compiler, BSD without advertising clause for runtime End -------------------------------------------------------------------------------