There is currently no facility for embedding Gamma source code into a stand-alone Gamma executable. However, it is possible to create a Gamma program which appears to be a stand-alone executable to the user. This is done by using the shell's #! directive at the top of the Gamma file. Simply include the line indicating the full path for your Gamma program, for example:
#!/usr/cogent/bin/gamma
If using Gamma with Photon, you should use:
#!/usr/cogent/bin/phgamma
Then change the permissions on the Gamma file to be
executable. The Gamma file can now be run directly as if it
were a stand-alone executable. The directive must appear as the
first line of the program, and it must reference the actual
Gamma executable, not a link.
The following example program will print the famous "Hello world" message to the screen:
#!/usr/cogent/bin/gamma
princ ("Hello world\n");
There is no requirement for a function named main. If a function with the name main is defined, then Gamma automatically starts to execute that function. Thus, the result of the following program:
#!/usr/cogent/bin/gamma
function MyPrint()
{
princ ("Hello world\n");
}
function main()
{
MyPrint();
}
MyPrint();
is that the function MyPrint will be
executed twice.
Command line arguments can be passed to the Gamma program using the list variable argv. For more details see Tutorial I.