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Welcome to the RNA Project Homepage
   
 
 
 

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What is RNA?

It is a small database system like a LISP system, though without a 'eval' function. Its structure has been inspired by the RTL expressions inside the GNU compiler and by the object system of the self programming language. It is trying to reveal some sort common structure inside different languages expressing networked data structures.

The problem about usual data structures in C is that it is difficult to store and retrieve them from files. When looking at Linux configuration files, e.g. sendmail. cd or termcap, everybody is writing her own small parser from scratch.

So I got to the idea to create something that is flexible enough to process the GCC RTL expressions (indeed, they are a pretty good idea). RNA is in use for reading configuration files of some programs that have a quite complex configuration files.

On the other side, it is something very simple and archaic. It does not even have a garbage collector. It uses the good old GNU obstacks. Just to keep it simple and transparent. Nevertheless, RNA is capable to express everything that can be found in HTML, VRML, LISP, and what's now XML. It's far less bloated, however. It is like the biological RNA in the primeval water that bootstrapped itself into life.

RNA is distributed under the GNU General Public License.

Contributions are welcome.

 
           
 
 
 
 
   
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