Code generation from
Mathematica involves converting programs written in the
Mathematica language into other languages and then supporting them so that they can be executed. The
Mathematica compiler provides a system for code generation into the C language.
One mode of use is to create C code that conforms to a
Wolfram Library; this can be compiled with a C compiler and linked back into
Mathematica. This is how the
CompilationTarget option of
Compile works when it is set to "C"; it is described in more detail in the tutorial on
CompilationTarget.
An alternative is to generate C code that can be used outside of
Mathematica. Since this will execute outside of
Mathematica, any
external calls from the compiler cannot be supported. This means that high-level
Mathematica functions such as
Integrate or
NDSolve, which really do need
Mathematica, are not supported. On the other hand, if your code is based on the set of
Mathematica that can be processed by the compiler, this can work outside of
Mathematica. This is done by a runtime library that is provided to give support to the C code.
One way to use the code generator is to call
Export and
ExportString. The following creates a fragment of C code from a
Mathematica function; this could be compiled into a shared library.
