There are two major tools needed to convert a set of source files into a stand-alone program or a runtime system:
qpc, which translates
Prolog files into QOF files. This is described in sap-srs-qpc.
qld, which links one or more QOF
files together and builds an executable file. Often the user will
not need to call qld directly because qpc will
do this automatically. The linker is described in sap-srs-qld.
It is also possible to build QOF files by saving them directly from
a Prolog development system session, as described in ref-sls.
QOF files saved in this way can then be used directly to build a
stand-alone program with qld.
qpc allows independent compilation of the files that
make up an application program. The dotted box in the above figure
illustrates this functionality.
The use of qpc and qld correspond to the use
of the C compiler and linker as follows:
| Quintus Prolog | C
| |
|
| ||
| sources: | a.pl | a.c
|
| compiler: | qpc | compiler
|
| object files: | a.qof | e.g. a.o
|
| linker: | qld | linker
|
| executable: | a.out | e.g. a.out
|