BARScriptCompiler

This is a compiler for the .bos animation scripting format for the recoil engine. It is a fully complete replacement for Scriptor, which is now nearly 25 years old.

Using the NPPExec plugin will auto save the file before compilation.

The warning WARNING: Couldn't write lextab module 'pcpp.lextab'. [Errno 2] No such file or directory can safely be ignored.

Can compile entire directories of BOS files.

Note that the pcpp preprocessor allows for very extensive customization and modularization

Setup for VSCode

• Install the Bos language support VSCode Extension by Chesiren from: https://github.com/chesiren/bos-language-support
• Select the menu 'Terminal->Configure Tasks...'
• Scroll to the bottom, select Create tasks.json file from template
• Select Others
• Paste the snippet below into the tasks.json file
• Edit the path to BARScriptCompiler.exe
• Hit ctrl-shift-B to compile any .bos file

{
    // See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=733558
    // for the documentation about the tasks.json format
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "tasks": [
        {
            "label": "BARScriptCompiler",
            "type": "shell",
            "command": "N:/BARScriptCompiler/BARScriptCompiler.exe",
            "args": [{
                "value":"${file}",
                "quoting": "strong"
            }],
            "problemMatcher": [],
            "group": {
                "kind": "build",
                "isDefault": true
            }
        }
    ]
}

Setup Windows Notepad++

• Download this repo as zip
• Install Notepad++
• Install the NPPexec plugin for Notepad++ from the Plugins->Plugins Admin menu
• Hit F6 to set up the compiler
• Set up the nppexec script with (NOTE: only change the path to the exe, dont change the "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)" part, as that is needed so np++ knows the path to the file) :

npp_save
"C:\BARScriptCompiler\BARScriptCompiler.exe" "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)"

• hit CTRL + F6 to compile it

Setup Linux

• Clone this repo
• pip install pcpp
• python bos2cob_py3.py bosfile.bos

Command line args:

parser.add_argument("--shortopcodes", action='store_true', help = "Use uint8_t opcodes (EXPERIMENTAL with engine branch CobShortOpCodes)")
parser.add_argument("--dontfold", action='store_true', help = "Disable constant folding optimization")
parser.add_argument("--nopcpp", action='store_true', help = "Fallback to builtin preprocessor instead of pcpp")
parser.add_argument("--dumpast", action='store_true', help = "Dump the parsed syntax tree into a _initial.ast file")
parser.add_argument("--dumppcpp", action='store_true', help = "Dump the results of the pcpp preprocessor")
parser.add_argument("--include", type= str, help = "Additional include directory for pcpp preprocessor")
parser.add_argument("filename", type = str, help= "A bos file to compile, or a directory of bos files to work on, such as ../units/myunit.bos")

Future Plans

• Improve the language to use chars as opcodes for better interpreter switch generation

• First-class ABS, MAX, MIN, SIGN, SINE, DELTAHEADING etc functions for speed.

  • E.g. see https://github.com/beyond-all-reason/spring/commit/acc3a294b0d9db28a16fea75858c80110ede4d6b#diff-302c5df9876df8e098af4798263206e886f90b827ccab2e56f3f2da690eaf256R705

• New GET statements for unit_x, unit_z

  • Because the current packedXZ format packs the units position into two 16 bit integers, this precision is absolulyte not enough!

• Parametric move and turn commands, use variables from the stack instead of constants in the COB script

  • Because sometimes, you want to be able to turn a piece based on a a variable and dont want to write a huge if statement. E.g.:
  • we would want: move (barrel0 + VARIABLE) along x-axis [1] speed [1];
  • instead of :

   	if (X == 0 ) move barrel0 along x-axis [1] speed [1];
   	if (X == 1 ) move barrel1 along x-axis [1] speed [1];
   	if (X == 2 ) move barrel2 along x-axis [1] speed [1];

• Scale command

  • Due to the new skeletal and mesh animations, move and turn are no longer enough to describe animations
  • e.g. scale torso along x-axis [2.0] speed [2.0];

• Thread safety indicator, to allow MT'ing of ticks

  • Engine random isnt MT safe, use and see Linear Feedback Shift register in random.h
  • Doing things like getting the unitID's of other units is not thread safe
  • But the compiler can know ahead of time of all of the

• Lua-less batched sendtounsynced

• Array support

• Constant acceleration

• Multithreaded execution of COB scripts on engine, see the wonderful diagram here:

Known improvements:

• Python3
• Better printing of syntax errors
• Constant folding
• Working when compiling whole directories
• Mandatory pcpp preprocessor support
• More expletives in comments
• Support for uint8_t bos opcodes

Stuff needing doing

• Convert bos2cob.py to python3
• Supply compiler exectutable for notepad++ running
• Optimize constants
• Add cmd options to wrapper
• Validate modulo operator

License: GPL, original author ashdnazg:

https://github.com/ashdnazg/bos2cob