Qore README

author: David Nichols <david@qore.org>
updated: 2015-09-06

This document contains some general information on the Qore language.  Please
refer to the following files/locations for specific information:

README-LICENSE:
  read about Qore's open-source software licenses

README-GIT:
  learn how to build qore from git sources

README-MODULES:
  information about qore modules (delivered separately from the qore library)

WHATISQORE:
  general description of the Qore programming language

RELEASE-NOTES:
  release notes, known issues, etc - however see the following URL for full
  release notes online:
  	  http://qore.org/manual/current/lang/html/release_notes.html

BUILDING:
  information on how to build and install qore from sources - some quick
  information below

docs/lang/html:
  Qore reference manual (built during the build process if you have doxygen)

docs/library/html/index.html:
  API documentation for qore's public API (built during the build process if
  you have doxygen)

test/:
  test scripts.  test/test.q is the main regression test script; testing is
  not yet automated as a part of the build...

examples/:
  many example Qore scripts/programs.


************************
*** Quick Build Info ***
************************
 * only UNIX-like platforms are currently supported (although Windows binaries
   can be built with mxe, and theoretically qore could be built directly on a
   Windows host)
 * requires POSIX threading support
 * requires at least flex 2.5.31 (older distributions have flex 2.5.4, flex
   2.5.37 recommended) in order to compile the multithreaded parser; you can
   get this version at:
      http://sourceforge.net/projects/flex
 * requires pcre headers and libraries for perl5-compatible regex support;
   POSIX regex support is no longer used
 * requires openssl headers and libraries
 * requires zlib & bzlib headers and libraries
 * requires mpfr (and gmp) for the arbitrary-precision numeric support
 * optionally support for XML, Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Sybase, MS SQL
   Server, SSH2 and more can be built (see README-MODULES for details)
 * XML support has been removed as of Qore 0.8.1+; use the "xml" module
   instead


***************
*** HISTORY ***
***************
Qore was originally designed to facilitate embedding integration logic in a
workflow/technical order management system (the system is called Qorus
Integration Engine).

The initial requirements for the language were: clean threading model, SMP
scalability, efficient resource sharing, safe embedding of logic in automomous
objects with restricted capabilities, good networking and lightweight (ex
xml-rpc, json-rpc) web-service and other common protocol support, system
stability and memory cleanliness.

However, while qore was originally designed as an embedded application
scripting library (and still excels at this task), it has evolved to be a
fully-functional standalone language as well.