Target Language Compiler

New Features and Compatibility Issues in
Versions 4.0, 4.1, and 5.0

New Features Added in Version 5.0

The following features have been added to the Target Language Compiler for Version 5.0 (MATLAB release 13). In addition, Real-Time Workshop 5.0 contains many fixes and enhancements that are potentially relevant to Target Language Compiler users. See the Real-Time Workshop Release Notes for a complete description. The Target Language Compiler 5.0 updates are:

• A C-like SPRINTF built-in formatting function has been added which returns a TLC string encoded with data from a variable number of arguments.
• BlockInstanceData function has been depreciated

• S-functions should no longer call the BlockInstanceData function. All data used by a block should be declared using data type work vectors (DWORK).

• Unified Code Generation for Real-Time Workshop and Stateflow

• In earlier releases, code generated from Stateflow charts in a model was written to source code files distinct from the source code files (such as model.c, model.h, etc.) generated from the rest of the model. Now, by default, Stateflow no longer generates any separate files from the Real-Time Workshop. For example, all Stateflow initialization code is now inlined.

• A new directive, %filescope, can be used to limit the scopes of variables to the files they are defined in. All variables defined after the appearance of %filescope in a file will have this property, otherwise they will default to global variables.
• Use of the :: operator to access global variables is now allowed in TLC files. Variables defined on the command line and records read from model.rtw files will remain global variables. Nested include files cannot access variables local to the file which included them.
• The %assert directive (which tests the value of a Boolean expression and issues an error message, prints a stack trace, and then exits if the result is FALSE) is now easier to control.

• You may enable/disable such %assert tests in several ways: via the -da command line switch, by the %setcommandswitch directive within files, using the set_param(model, 'TLCAssertion', 'on|off') command, or with a checkbox control on the Real-Time Workshop GUI. By default, the checkbox is empty (%assert directives are ignored).

• The EXISTS builtin will now be able to take a non-string LHS expression as an argument. The old version of EXISTS will be deprecated (and will possibly generate a warning). The new EXISTS variation will be much faster than the old version.
• You may now request HTML Reports when generating code for most targets (all except the S-Function target and the Rapid Simulation target).

New Features Added in Version 4.1

The following features have been added to the Target Language Compiler for Version 4.1 (MATLAB release 12.1):

• The TLC Debugger is now supported. See Debugging TLC Files.
• ISINF, ISNAN and ISFINITE now work for complex values.
• Added support for literal strings.

• If a string constant is preceded by an L format specifier (as in L"string"), TLC performs no escape character processing on that string. This is useful for specifying PC style paths without using double backslash characters.

  The following examples are equivalent.

  • L"d:\this\is\a\path"
  • "d:\\this\\is\\a\\path"

• Zero indexing for complex values is now supported, as in:

• %assign a = 1.0 + 3.0i 
  %assign b = a[0] %% this didn't work before
  

• The following new functions have been added to the TLC Function Library:
• LibBlockInputSignalConnected
• LibBlockInputSignalLocalSampleTimeIndex
• LibBlockInputSignalOffsetTime
• LibBlockInputSignalSampleTime
• LibBlockInputSignalSampleTimeIndex
• LibBlockOutputSignalOffsetTime
• LibBlockOutputSignalSampleTime
• LibBlockOutputSignalSampleTimeIndex
• LibBlockMatrixParameterBaseAddr
• LibBlockParameterBaseAddr
• LibBlockNonSampledZC

• See Inlining S-Functions for information on these functions.

• The handling of signal connections in rtw/c/tlc/blkiolib.tlc was reworked along with updating the help for LibBlockInputSignal. See Input Signal Functions.

New Features Added in Version 4.0

The following features were added to the Target Language Compiler for Version 4.0 (MATLAB release 12):

• Complete parsing of the TLC file just before execution. This aids development because syntax errors are caught the first time the TLC file is run instead of the first time the offending line is reached.
• TLC speed improvements across the board, particularly in block parameter generation.
• Creation and use of a build directory in the current directory to prevent generated code from clashing with other files generated for other targets, and for keeping your model directories maintenance to a minimum.
• Entirely new TLC Profiler for finding performance problems in your TLC code.
• New format and changes to the model.rtw file. See model.rtw, for details. The size of the model.rtw file has been reduced.
• Aliases added for block parameters in the model.rtw file; see ParamName0 in model.rtw, for details.
• New flexible methods for text expansion from within strings.
• Column-major ordering of 2-dimensional signal and parameter data.
• FIELDNAMES, GENERATE_FORMATTED_VALUE, GETFIELD, ISALIAS, ISEMPTY, ISEQUAL, ISFIELD, REMOVEFIELD, SETFIELDSupport for 2-dimensional signals in inlined code.
• INTMAX, INTMIN, TLC_TRUE, TLC_FALSE, UINTMAX
• Functions can return records.
• Formalization of records and record aliases.
• Loop control variables are local to loop bodies.
• Improved EXISTS semantics (See Built-In Functions and Values).
• Can expand records with %<>
• Short circuiting of conditionals ( ||, &&, ?:, %if-%elseif-%else-%endif )
• Relational operators can be used with non-finite values.
• Enhanced conversion rules for FEVAL. You can now pass records and structs to FEVAL.

Search Algorithm for Locating Target Files

Compatibility Issues