m2stdlib

m2stdlib

Why

The standard library shipped with mx. Every module listed here is compiled into the compiler itself -- you do not need .def files, dependency declarations in m2.toml, or -I paths to use them. Just write FROM ModuleName IMPORT ... and they work.

All modules in this library are available in the default PIM4 edition. You do not need --m2plus unless you use the M2+ concurrency modules (Thread, Mutex, Condition).

How to use

Import procedures from any standard module directly:

FROM InOut IMPORT WriteString, WriteLn;
FROM Strings IMPORT Assign, Length;
FROM MathLib IMPORT sqrt;

No [deps] entry in m2.toml is needed. The compiler recognizes these module names and provides their implementations automatically.

Modules

PIM4 Modules

These are the classic PIM4 (Programming in Modula-2, 4th edition) standard library modules. They work in the default compilation mode with no flags.

Module	Purpose
InOut	The workhorse I/O module: print strings, integers, hex/octal to stdout; read strings and numbers from stdin; redirect I/O to files
Terminal	Minimal character I/O: read/write single characters and strings. Use this when InOut is more than you need
RealInOut	Print and read floating-point numbers in general, fixed-point, and hex formats
Strings	String manipulation on fixed-size ARRAY OF CHAR: copy, concatenate, search, compare, insert, delete
Storage	Heap allocation (ALLOCATE/DEALLOCATE) -- the procedures behind NEW and DISPOSE
MathLib	Math functions: sqrt, sin, cos, exp, ln, arctan, entier, plus random number generation
FileSystem	Open, close, and read/write files one character at a time
BinaryIO	Read and write files as raw bytes, with seeking and file-size queries
Args	Access command-line arguments: count them and retrieve each one by index

ISO Modules

These modules follow the ISO 10514 Modula-2 standard naming conventions. They provide the same kinds of I/O as the PIM4 modules but with a different API style (no global Done variable, different procedure names). They are available in PIM4 mode -- no special flags needed.

Module	Purpose
STextIO	Read/write characters, strings, lines, and whitespace-delimited tokens
SWholeIO	Read/write integers and cardinals with field-width formatting
SRealIO	Print REAL values in scientific notation, fixed-point, or general format
SLongIO	Same as SRealIO but for LONGREAL (double-precision) values
SIOResult	Result codes for ISO I/O: ReadResult type with values allRight, endOfLine, endOfInput

Compiler-Builtin Modules

These are built into the compiler. They are always available, no import of definition files needed.

Module	Exports	Purpose
SYSTEM	ADDRESS, ADR, TSIZE, WORD, BYTE	Low-level types and operations for pointer arithmetic and memory access
Args	ArgCount, GetArg	Command-line argument access

M2+ Concurrency Modules

These modules require --m2plus or m2plus=true in m2.toml. They wrap pthreads and provide thread-safe concurrency primitives.

Module	Exports	Purpose
Thread	Fork, Join, Self, Sleep, Yield	Create and manage threads
Mutex	Init, Destroy, Lock, Unlock	Mutual exclusion locks
Condition	Init, Destroy, Wait, Signal, Broadcast	Condition variables for thread coordination

Internal C Bridge Modules

These modules provide the C function bindings that back the standard library implementations. They are declared as DEFINITION MODULE FOR "C" and call libc functions directly. You would not normally import these in application code -- use the M2 modules above instead.

Module	Wraps
CIO	getchar, putchar, fopen, fclose, fread, fwrite, fseek, ftell, feof
CStr	strlen, memcpy, memmove, strcmp, strstr, toupper
CMem	malloc, free
CMath	sqrtf, sinf, cosf, expf, logf, atanf, floorf
CRand	rand, srand
CFmt	Float formatting wrappers (backed by m2fmt.c) for snprintf/scanf without varargs

Example

A complete program that uses several standard library modules:

MODULE StdlibDemo;
FROM InOut IMPORT WriteString, WriteInt, WriteLn;
FROM Strings IMPORT Assign, Length, Concat;
FROM MathLib IMPORT sqrt, entier;
FROM Args IMPORT ArgCount, GetArg;

VAR
  greeting: ARRAY [0..255] OF CHAR;
  arg: ARRAY [0..255] OF CHAR;
  i: INTEGER;

BEGIN
  (* Build a string by assignment and concatenation *)
  Assign("Hello", greeting);
  Concat(greeting, " world", greeting);
  WriteString(greeting); WriteLn;
  WriteString("Length: ");
  WriteInt(INTEGER(Length(greeting)), 1); WriteLn;

  (* Math: sqrt returns REAL, use entier to truncate to INTEGER *)
  WriteString("sqrt(144) = ");
  WriteInt(entier(sqrt(144.0)), 1); WriteLn;

  (* Print all command-line arguments *)
  WriteString("Arguments (");
  WriteInt(INTEGER(ArgCount()), 1);
  WriteString("):"); WriteLn;
  FOR i := 0 TO INTEGER(ArgCount()) - 1 DO
    GetArg(CARDINAL(i), arg);
    WriteString("  [");
    WriteInt(i, 1);
    WriteString("] ");
    WriteString(arg); WriteLn
  END
END StdlibDemo.