Editing CINT (section)

{{Short description|A computer programming language interpreter}}
{{for|the Center of Integrated Nanotechnology|Alexander V. Balatsky}}
'''CINT''' is a [[command line]] [[C (programming language)|C]]/[[C++]] [[Interpreter (computing)|interpreter]] that was originally included in the [[Object oriented programming|object oriented]] data analysis [[Software package (installation)|package]] [[ROOT]].<ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=CINT {{!}} ROOT a Data analysis Framework |url=http://root.cern.ch/cint |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200504034257/http://root.cern.ch/cint |archive-date=2020-05-04 |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=root.cern.ch}}</ref> Although intended for use with the other faculties of ROOT, CINT can also be used as a standalone addition to another program that requires such an interpreter. In 2013, [[CERN]] switched to the Cling C++ interpreter, so CINT is now distributed standalone by the author.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CINT : C++ interpreter |url=http://www.hanno.jp/gotom/Cint.html |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=www.hanno.jp}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=CINT the C++ Interpreter |url=https://root.cern.ch/root/html534/guides/users-guide/CINT.html |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=root.cern.ch}}</ref>

CINT is an interpreted version of C/C++, much in the way [[BeanShell]] is an interpreted version of [[Java (programming language)|Java]]. In addition to being a language interpreter, it offers certain [[Bash (Unix shell)|Bash]]-like [[Unix shell|shell]] features such as history and [[tab-completion]]. To accomplish the latter, it relies heavily on the [[Reflection (computer science)|reflection]] support built into ROOT.  User classes that follow these interfaces may also take advantage of these features.

The language originally interpreted by CINT was actually something of a hybrid between C and C++, covering about 95% of ANSI C and 85% of C++.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ROOT: An Object-Oriented Data Analysis Framework {{!}} Linux Journal |url=https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/2895 |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=www.linuxjournal.com}}</ref> The syntax, however, is a bit more forgiving than either language.  For example, the operator [[Operators in C and C++#Other operators|<code>-></code>]] can be replaced by <code>.</code> with only an optional warning.  In addition, statements on the command line do not need to end with a semi-colon, although this is necessary for statements in macros.

As an alternative to CINT, [[ROOT]] also provides Cling which is an [[REPL]] application using [[LLVM]]'s [[Clang]] as a C++ JIT compilation environment.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://root.cern.ch/drupal/content/cling |title=C++ interpreter Cling |publisher=Rene Brun and Fons Rademakers |accessdate=December 25, 2020}}</ref>