This directory contains the source code of the pidl (Perl IDL) 
compiler. 

pidl.pl is the main file of pidl.

Pidl works by building a parse tree from a .pidl file (a simple 
dump of it's internal parse tree) or a .idl file 
(a file format mostly like the IDL file format midl uses). 
The IDL file parser is in idl.yp (a yacc file converted to 
perl code by yapp)

After a parse tree is present, pidl will call one of it's backends 
(which one depends on the options given on the command-line). Here is 
a list of current backends:

-- Generic --
dump.pm - Converts the parse tree back to an IDL file
validator.pm  - Validates the parse tree

-- DCE/RPC+NDR --
ndr.pm - Generates intermediate datastructures for use by NDR parses/generators
ndr_client.pm - Generates client call functions in C using the NDR parser
eth_parser.pm - Generates a parser for the ethereal network sniffer
eth_header.pm - Generates a header for ethereal
swig.pm	- Generates SWIG interface files (.i)
ndr_header.pm - Generates a header file with structures
ndr_parser.pm - Generates pull/push functions for parsing NDR
server.pm - Generates server side implementation in C
template.pm - Generates stubs in C for server implementation

-- COM / DCOM --
odl.pm - Generates IDL structures from ODL structures for use in 
			the NDR parser generator
dcom_proxy.pm - Generates proxy object for DCOM (client-side)
dcom_stub.pm - Generates stub call handler for DCOM (server-side)
com_header.pm - Generates header file for COM interface(s)

-- Utility modules --
tables.pl - Generates a table of available interfaces from a list of IDL files 
util.pm - Misc utility functions used by *.pm and pidl.pl
typelist.pm - Utility functions for keeping track of known types and their 
				representation in C

Tips for hacking on pidl:
 - Look at the pidl's parse tree by using the --keep option and looking 
   at the generated .pidl file. 
 - The various backends have a lot in common, if you don't understand how one 
   implements something, look at the others
 - See pidl(1) and the documentation on midl
 - See 'info bison' and yapp(1) for information on the file format of idl.yp