| % Introduction |
| \vspace{-0.5in} |
| |
| Photran is an IDE for Fortran 90/95 and Fortran 77 that is built on top of |
| Eclipse. It is structured as an Eclipse feature, in other words, as a set of |
| plug-ins that are designed to be used together. Starting with version 3.0, it is |
| an extension of C/C++ Development Tools (CDT), the Eclipse IDE for C/C++. |
| Previous versions of Photran were created by hacking a copy of CDT to support |
| Fortran instead of C/C++, but now we have developed a mechanism for adding new |
| languages into CDT, allowing the Fortran support code to be in its own set of |
| plug-ins. |
| |
| Our purpose in writing Photran was to create a refactoring tool for Fortran. |
| Thus, Photran has a complete parser and program representation. Photran adds a |
| Fortran editor and several preference pages to the CDT user interface, as |
| well as a Fortran Managed Make project type. |
| |
| \vspace{-0.2in} |
| |
| \section{How To Read This Guide} |
| |
| This document explains the design of Photran so that interested contributors |
| could fix a bug or add a refactoring. Contributors should know how to use |
| Photran and how CDT works. There is a short |
| \href{http://www.eclipse.org/photran/documentation.php}{\emph{Getting Started |
| Guide}} on the Photran website. |
| |
| Contributors also need to understand Eclipse and how to build Eclipse plug-ins |
| before they read this document. We recommend reading |
| \href{http://www.amazon.com/Eclipse-Building-Commercial-Quality-Plug-Ins/dp/0321228472}{\emph{Building |
| Commercial-Quality Plug-ins}} and |
| \href{http://www.amazon.com/Java-Developers-Guide-Eclipse-2nd/dp/0321305027/}{\emph{The |
| Java Developer's Guide to Eclipse}} for Eclipse newcomers. |
| |
| This is a \emph{duplex} guide. The main chapters provide general descriptions of |
| the various components and how they interact. The appendix describes concrete |
| examples from Photran so that contributors can familiarize themselves with |
| actual code and implementation details. This guide complements the source code |
| in the repository; it is \underline{not a substitute} for reading the actual |
| source code. |
