Progress
Programming
Handbook
The Preprocessor
This chapter discusses the Progress language preprocessor, a powerful tool that enhances your programming flexibility. The Progress preprocessor allows you to write applications that are easy to read, modify, and transport to other operating systems.
The preprocessor is a component of the Progress Compiler. Before the Compiler analyzes your source code and creates r-code, the preprocessor examines your source code and performs text substitutions. The preprocessor also conditionally includes blocks of source code to compile. The preprocessor operates on a compilation unit, which is a group of files compiled together to produce one completed program. You can think of the preprocessor as a tool that prepares a final version of your source code just before it is compiled.
You control the preprocessor by placing preprocessor directives throughout your source code. A preprocessor directive is a statement that begins with an ampersand (&) and is meaningful only to the preprocessor. These directives are described in this chapter.
Copyright © 2004 Progress Software Corporation www.progress.com Voice: (781) 280-4000 Fax: (781) 280-4095 |