Translating simple library

Note that this example is built upon several assumptions, namely:

  • Translator is installed to C:\CodePorting.Translator_Cs2Cpp.4 directory
  • All C# projects are located in C:\SimpleLibrary directory
  • The output directory is C:\output

This example demonstrates how to a simple C# library project. We’ll use pre-existing projects from SimpleLibrary example.

SimpleLibrary is a library project that consists of a single .cs source file SimpleLibrary.cs and a project file SimpleLibrary.csproj. This project does not depend on any other C# projects. SimpleLibrary project's configuration file is pre-created, its name is SimpleLibrary.translator.config and it is located in the project’s directory SimpleLibrary. Let us have a closer look at the configuration file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<porter>
  <import config="translator.config"/>
</porter>

SimpleLibrary.translator.config file is quite simple. It begins with an XML declaration, which specifies that the file contains an XML document. Then goes the XML root element <porter> which is mandatory for Translator configuration XML document. Next, the default Translator configuration file is imported using <import> element. The default configuration will assign default values to all configuration options. Finally the XML document is finished with closing tag of the root element </porter>

This example assumes that C# SimpleLibrary project should be translated into C++ static library project, which is a default setting.

With the C# project at hand and configuration file ready, we can convert the project.

In order to convert SimpleLibrary project we run CMD and navigate to the directory with translator binary:

>cd C:\CodePorting.Translator_Cs2Cpp\bin\translator

And run Translator:

>CodeTranslator.Cs2Cpp.Console.exe -c C:\SimpleLibrary\SimpleLibrary.translator.config C:\SimpleLibrary\SimpleLibrary.csproj C:\output

Translator will print some logs of the translating process to the console window and when it finishes translating, directory C:\output will contain a directory named SimpleLibrary.Cpp containing the generated C++ source files and CMake configuration files.

Now we want to use CMake to generate makefile/project files. Let it be a Visual Studio 2022 x86 project file. In CMD we navigate to the C:\output\SimpleLibrary.Cpp directory

>cd C:\output\SimpleLibrary.Cpp

And run CMake in configuration mode:

>CMake --G "Visual Studio 17 2022"

And now we can build the sources using either CMake or Visual Studio. Let us use CMake:

>CMake --build . --config Release

The library is built.