3.2. Build Configuration

3.2.1. Unicode

By default Squirrel strings are plain 8-bits ASCII characters; however if the symbol ‘SQUNICODE’ is defined the VM, compiler and API will use 16-bit characters (UCS2).

3.2.2. Squirrel on 64-bit architectures

Squirrel can be compiled on 64-bit architectures by defining ‘_SQ64’ in the C++ preprocessor. This flag should be defined in any project that includes ‘squirrel.h’.

3.2.3. Userdata Alignment

Both class instances and userdatas can have a buffer associated to them. Squirrel specifies the alignment(in bytes) through the preprocessor defining ‘SQ_ALIGNMENT’. By default SQ_ALIGNMENT is defined as 4 for 32-bit builds and 8 for 64-bit builds and builds that use 64-bit floats. It is possible to override the value of SQ_ALIGNMENT respecting the following rules. SQ_ALIGNMENT shall be less than or equal to SQ_MALLOC alignments, and it shall be power of 2.

Note

This only applies for userdata allocated by the VM, specified via sq_setclassudsize() or belonging to a userdata object. userpointers specified by the user are not affected by alignment rules.

3.2.4. Stand-alone VM without compiler

Squirrel’s VM can be compiled without its compiler by defining ‘NO_COMPILER’ in the C++ preprocessor. When ‘NO_COMPILER’ is defined all function related to the compiler (eg. sq_compile) will fail. Other functions that conditionally load precompiled bytecode or compile a file (eg. sqstd_dofile) will only work with precompiled bytecode.