1. User Manual

This chapter provides the basic information on how to use avram to execute virtual machine code applications.

avram is invoked by typing a command at a shell prompt in one of these three forms.

avram [general options]
avram [filter mode options] codefile[.avm]
avram [parameter mode options] codefile[.avm] [parameters]

In the second case, avram reads from standard input, and may of course appear as part of commands such as

avram [filter mode options] codefile[.avm] < inputfile
anothercommand | avram [filter mode options] codefile[.avm]

When avram is invoked with the name of an input file (with a default extension .avm), it reads virtual machine code from the file and executes it on the host machine.

The virtual code format used by avram is designed to support the features of functional or applicative programming languages. Although this chapter documents only the usage of avram and not the internals, it will be helpful to keep in mind that the virtual machine code expresses a mathematical function rather than a program in the conventional sense. As such, it performs no action directly, but may be applied in a choice of ways by the user of avram according to the precise operation required.

The following sections provide information in greater detail about usage and diagnostics.

This document was generated on December 10, 2012 using texi2html 1.82.