I am in need of a solution, and I am not quite sure I have enough knowledge to properly ask the question, so please bear with me. I am working with a CAD application with it's own API which supports the .NET Framework 4.5. I wanted to develop some customized functionality for the application using VB.NET, but because of work restrictions I am not allowed to install custom programs or run custom executables. I am however allowed to utilize the CAD applications scripting environment (which also supports the .NET Framework). I am limited in what I can achieve with scripting because as far I know I can't listen for an event in a script, because the scripts run time ends so quickly. Is there a way to extend the run time of a script until certain events occur? If anybody is curious, the CAD application I am using is called Siemens NX. Any Ideas?
I do not know how far this answer help you.
When you do not have events to listen, try to depend on return variables and using assert statements (or at least if statements).
I mean, if something happens then only go to next, which is a very traditional way.
Also, if you want to prolong the run time of script you can use some thing like "sleep" or "delay" statements (may be milli seconds as input).
I mean if some thing is happening (control by a variable), "sleep" till that action is complete.
Or check for the action complete status in a infinite while loop and exit, when it is done.
In simple terms, traditional way of doing things helps in your situation.
I want to make a tool which I can attach to another process and see where it writes to the memory, but I don't even know where to begin.
Any idea on how would I do this?
To do this, you will essentially have to write a debugger. Windows has The Debugging Application Programming Interface which you will need to use to accomplish this. This API is not simple and probably isn't designed to be called easily from VB.NET, so you probably have a challenging task ahead. But that's how you would begin.
I try to use this 2 projects for primitive gui testing automation:
http://www.ptfbpro.com/
http://www.autoitscript.com/
And I can't make my choice.
Can somebody explain me: why(in 2 or 3 lines) he use one of them(or other please specify)?
I use AutoIt...
because it's free, well documented (not only) from inside of the Scite Editor and you can easily compile your script into a small executable or even create a complete GUI and there is a very good community in the forums and around here. And its Basic-Like Syntax is really easy to understand, there are functions and even a foreach-syntax, dynamic arrays and lots of additional functions from other users... There's good integration with other programming languages and from the use of so many WinAPI functions you lack of very little possibilities. It can automate IE usage without even displaying a browser window and send network packages, you can send Keystrokes like a user sitting in front of your screen and there's the AU3Record Tool which allows you to just record a Macro and replay it or save it as a script and then you can easily optimize it and edit it for your needs. Or use the AutoIt Window Info tool to see all the possible handlings for your application, you can interact with any kind of program output/display according to different algorithms you may invent.
Enough facts? ;-)
Go with Autoit3. It 's a lot more reliable, and you have a complete script language. Ptfbpro is only a tool (not free), nothing more. AUtoit3 has a lot of contributors that can help you in your process, Ptfbpro is dead.
If you want a script taht really do what you want, just go for AutoIt. Ptfbpro can't be used as a professional tool.
Autoit3 as well. You really can't beat it for being free and so easy to use.
Are there any Open source APIs available for wav to midi conversion? You find many open source software, but I couldn't find APIs. Is there any way I can find them? Also are there any Open source APIs available for music transcription? (i.e. generating a digital version of a music sheet). Greatly appreciate any form of direction or assistance. Advance Thanks
Converting from wav to midi is a very difficult and error prone operation, not often done as far as I know, which will very often give poor results, so having an API to do that would be silly, though libraries may exist for it used in the Open Source software you mention. .wav files have no useful metadata that can help you get back to midi. It's much harder than speech to text to do well! (harmonics and noise matter). Will probably work OK for single instruments playing though, with strong fundamental frequencies that can be picked out with fourier transform.
For OCR of sheet music, I have found a piece of GPL'd software called Audiveris. This task isn't as hard as the previous thing, but is still a highly complex operation, probably requiring manual intervention to correct errors, that having a simple API for is pointless.
If you are making some Open Source software yourself, you can of course attempt to adapt swathes of code from these projects for whatever use you have in mind, though I doubt it would be worth the effort.
If any of the software you find has a command line interface to start a conversion, you could execute shell commands from your own software to make them do the required conversions automatically.
Before answering this question, understand that I am not asking how to create my own programming language, I am asking how, using vb.net code, I can create a compiler for a language like vb.net itself. Essentially, the user inputs code, they get a .exe. By NO MEANS do I want to write my own language, as it seems other compiler related questions on here have asked. I also do not want to use the vb.net compiler itself, nor do I wish to duplicate the IDE.
The exact purpose of what I wish to do is rather hard to explain, but all I need is a nudge in the right direction for writing a compiler (from scratch if possible) which can simply take input and create a .exe. I have opened .exe files as plain text before (my own programs) to see if I could derive some meaning from what I assumed would be human readable text, yet I was obviously sorely disappointed to see the random ascii, though it is understandable why this is all I found.
I know that a .exe file is simply lines of code, being parsed by the computer it is on, but my question here really boils down to this: What code makes up a .exe? How could I go about making one in a plain text editor if I wanted to? (No, I do not want to do that, but if I understand the process my goals will be much easier to achieve.) What makes an executable file an executable file? Where does the logic of the code fit in?
This is intended to be a programming question as opposed to a computer question, which is why I did not post it on SuperUser. I know plenty of information about the System.IO namespace, so I know how to create a file and write to it, I simply do not know what exactly I would be placing inside this file to get it to work as an executable file.
I am sorry if this question is "confusing", "dumb", or "obvious", but I have not been able to find any information regarding the actual contents of an executable file anywhere.
One of my google searches
Something that looked promising
EDIT: The second link here, while it looked good, was an utter fail. I am not going to waste hours of my time hitting keys and recording the results. "Use the "Alt" and the 3-digit combinations to create symbols that do not appear on the keyboard but that you need in the program." (step 4) How the heck do I know what symbols I need???
Thank you very much for your help, and my apologies if this question is a nooby or "bad" one.
To sum this up simply: I want to create a program in vb.net that can compile code in a particular language to a single executable file. What methods exist that can allow me to do this, and if there are none, how can I go about writing my own from scratch?
What you're asking is a pretty complex question. Sure, at its core it seems pretty basic:
Interpret the code itself
Write out the interpreted code
but each of those steps can be pretty intense. Step 1 should be somewhat achievable with some time and a LOT of elbow grease - you need to parse the code into a number of control statements based upon the specification of the language. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsing for more information on this step. In essence you're converting the typed code into a common format that represents the functionality you want.
Once you've parsed the code, the next step would be to take that parsed code and convert it into machine-runnable code (typically assembly, though with VB.NET you can write Microsoft Intermediate Language code as the output and then run it in the CLR). This is what will actually create the executable file in a manner that lets the computer run the program.
Unfortunately, the best advice for solving this problem is to either:
Go purchase several books on a programming language, machine code, assembly language, compilers, and so on, then spend several months or years reading and experimenting until the knowledge you gain from the books results in your writing a successful compiler.
Enroll in a computer science program at a local university. Writing compilers and programming languages are usually covered at a rudimentary level during the second or third year of a BS in computer science, and then in much more depth at a graduate level.
Good luck!
EDIT: If all you're looking for is a way to write code and then write a way to execute it, you might try looking at writing an interpreter for one of the scripting languages that already exist - Ruby, Python, Lua, etc.
Process.Start(String.Format("vbc.exe {0}", sourceFilePath))
Here is one book that explains it all at a very basic level. Including sample code that you can get working in a matter of hours.
As with many programming endevors, it will take you many months of study to accomplish what you want. Good luck!!
Let me start by saying this is totally doable. Ignore the naysayers.
OK, so it seems you bit off more than you could chew here. I would suggest slightly re-evaluating your goal. It seems that you want to learn how compilers work, and writing a VB.net compiler is your project to get started.
Try instead to write an interpreter, which is a much smaller and simpler task. Here's how you do it:
Write a parser for a very very small language, maybe only supporting assignment statements. Use a parser toolkit, like Antlr. This will build an AST ("abstract syntax tree" - ie a few classes or objects representing the program's syntax, without the crap like semi-colons, as a tree), which will look something like this:
then you go through the AST, and just execute it. Google for "AST walker". So for the assignment x = 5, create a hashtable entry for 'x', assign 5 to it, then move on to the next statement.
keep adding features as you go.
Once you've got the full language, you'll probably have learned enough on the way to understand the compiler books. Don't use the dragon book, try Appel's book instead, or Cooper/Torczon. There are online books if you prefer, I've never tried them.
When you go to write the compiler, you'll just be changing the bit that executes the AST into one which generates assembly (or C if you prefer) which will do the same action when it's run.
I'll grant that it seems daunting, but if you stick to a something simple to start, you'll get something working in a few days at most. In a few months, you'll have built it up to something like what you're looking for. Good luck.
To the final part of your question:
It seems that you don't know how executables are made from code. People haven't messed with hex in their compilers since the 80s, and hopefully not much even then.
Basically, after parsing the code, you go through a series of steps which make the code progressively simpler. At the end of that, you have something that is quite close to assembly. You then generate assembly, and the assembler and linker conspire to make it into an executable.
The Visual Basic .NET compiler is shipped for free as part of the .NET Framework - you don't even need the SDK or Express Editions. The compiler for VB (and C#) is located at c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework[version]\vbc.exe (or csc.exe for C#). Therefore, any computer which can run a VB.NET program can compile one. The .NET Framework also includes the System.CodeDom namespace which provides a way from within a program to compile a program, either from a document model or from a string (or file) into a .NET assembly (.exe or .dll) and generate code in both VB and C#.
Regards,
Anthony D. Green | Program Manager | Visual Basic Compiler
You create a compiler for vb.net the same way you create any other compiler. You need a lexer/parser. Entire books have been written on this topic, the most famous probably being The Dragon Book.
To provide a definitive answer: No, you cannot create a decent compiler that will generate an executable file using Notepad. You need a compiler to convert from human-readable text into the machine language (assembly or IL) that a linker or interpreter can then execute.
You can try checking out my tutorial at http://www.icemanind.com
It is a tutorial on creating your own virtual machine and assembler, written in 100% C#.
Cyclone, I'm wondering exactly what are you trying to achieve? You say "the exact purpose of what I wish to do is rather hard to explain" and "essentially, the user inputs code, they get a .exe".
If you just want the user to be able to enter code and then execute it, you might consider an existing scripting language. VBScript is built into Windows and the language is fairly similar to VB.Net, or there are various excellent free languages you can download like Python.
If the user really needs to be able to create a .exe - I think it's likely scripting might do - then why not use an existing free compiler like FreeBasic, or even Visual Basic.Net Express Edition.
I am making a tutorial for that in my website, http://dgblogs.weebly.com. It is written with C# and you can create your own computer programming language!
You will never see this syntax in my tutorials:
Console.Readline();
My website is currently offline by now so, GOOD LUCK!
Thanks,
DgBlogs
Im quite shocked that this question was never fully answered ; Recently i came across some tutorials on the subject of developing a programming language from scratch https://www.youtube.com/c/DmitrySoshnikov-education/playlists
Although the person uses Java Script the technique used for creating the tokenizer and the parser to consume the output from the tokenizer producing the AST for the transcribed language which i would consider to be GOLD! ...
Another tutorial or person https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSq9OFrD2Q3DasoOa54Vm9Mr8CATyTbLF
Toby Ho! Has also produce various methods using the Nearly parser (plugin) to build a language much easier but not a Pure code coder like myself(does not like extensions to do the work which i can do myself)....
https://github.com/spydaz/SpydazWeb-AI-_Emulators
I was able to do some different experiments designing a stack machine (runs mini assembly language). for my "Toy" Programming language(basic) could be executed on. (the VM) - Using Visual Basic(My personal Lang - I think in VB)
Since revisiting the tutorials ;
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRAdsfhKI4OWNOSfS7EUu5GRAVmze1t2y
Immo Landwerth! Had a few more experiments This time with C#
A bit more Spaghetti to mull over; but actually revealing (after knowing a lot more);
Yes IT is possible to design a Compiler / VM with VB.net Quite easily ... without external tools .
For myself as an AI developer (CONVERSATIONAL AI / NLP) i was interested in building a compiler for the English language if it would be possible to use the technique for parsing syntax trees and building syntax trees from text using the Tokenizer/Parser to AST Method , as well as designing the transpiler to allow for the syntax tree to be used for translation to other languages. as with today's programming languages merely being a Higher lever language interfacing with a low level(VM) language. in-fact we should be developing more natural language - programming languages and dispelling the more cryptic languages such as C# (Lol) and Java and Go and the like (so many brackets and semi colons / tabs etc - truly not needed!) and that is to say that we programmers still think in code! the journey as a AI developer crosses many domains. forces many off topic research pathways .. So Again a big YES! and we Still could say that ANy programming language can be used to create another programming language it just depends on which language you "THINK IN" .... hence not having too many languages using (i understand most programming languages - but i will always think in VB)...