polyglot

(most of this README is ai generated)

polyglot is a small tool that merges two source files (for example C++ + Python) into a single ".cpp" output file that can be used with C++ toolchains while preserving the other-language portion.

Purpose

The generated output wraps sections so the C/C++ compiler ignores the other-language code and the interpreter for that language sees the section as a normal script region. The main program (main.cpp) validates syntax using external checkers (for example g++ for C++ and pyflakes for Python) before merging. This tool can be used to produce a single file that behaves differently when run by Python (or another interpreter) or compiled as C++.

For example, to merge language A (e.g. C++) and language B (e.g. python), the comments in language B (r'''...''') needs to be ignored in language A (via wrapping in # if 0 ... #endif), and the comments in language A (#if 0 ... #endif) needs to be comments in language B.

Requirements

• g++ (for C++ syntax checking and compiling the tool)
• pip (to install pyflakes if absent)
• pyflakes for Python syntax checking (optional, fallback = python3 -m py_compile)

The tool also supports syntax checking for other languages via system tools:

• Ruby (ruby -c) — files with .rb
• Bash (bash -n) — files with .sh
• Perl (perl -c) — files with .pl

Build

From the repository root:

• Compile the tool:

  • g++ main.cpp -o polyglot

Usage

polyglot expects two source files and an output file specified with the -o option:

polyglot <source1> <source2> -o <outputFile>

The order of the two source files doesn't matter. The program determines which checks to run based on file extensions.

Example (using the sample files in this repo):

./polyglot ./test/test.cpp ./test/test.py -o ./test/out.cpp

After running, check your chosen output file (for example ./test/out.cpp) for the merged result.

Running tests

Note that you need bash, ruby, and perl in addition to g++ and python installed for the test runner to work smoothly for all supported languages.

g++ test_runner.cpp -o runtests;
./runtests

Notes & Troubleshooting

Notes & Troubleshooting

• If pyflakes is not installed the tool will print the error from the attempted check; install it or skip using Python source files.
  • Install manually: python -m pip install pyflakes
• On some systems the pyflakes executable might not be on PATH; use python -m pyflakes <file>.py instead.
• The tool runs external commands (via popen). Ensure g++, bash, ruby, and perl are available if you use those source file types.
• The output file is a .cpp file that will compile as C++ and can also be run by an interpreter (for example python out.cpp).

Example files

• test/test.cpp — simple C++ example
• test/test.py — simple Python example
• test/out.cpp — example of a previously merged output

Complete command

g++ main.cpp -o polyglot
./polyglot ./test/test.cpp ./test/test.py -o ./test/out.cpp

python ./test/out.cpp

g++ ./test/out.cpp -o ./test/out
./test/out

Contribution

Small fixes and improvements are welcome. Open an issue or submit a PR. Current issues:

1. Find other pairs of languages (difficulty ~= 2)

License

MIT License