Contact email : Augustin.Lux@inrialpes.fr

Abstract

Given the importance of C as a programming language, C data structures are the most important medium for representing dynamic program data, i.e. data during program execution. XML based representations make

data persistent, easy to inspect and to communicate. However, converting between these two types of representation is technically complex.

We present a set of tools to make conversion between complex arbitrary C data structures and XML files (almost) as easy as using printf/scanf functions in C. The tools comprise a program generator to automatically produce the necessay code from data definitions (header files), and a library for execution support. Owing to their simplicity, these tools are useful for a range of applications, e.g. documentation of program executions, data exchange between different programs, or high-level program inspection.