# ridiculousfish/cdecl-blocks

The venerable cdecl, with Apple blocks support

Repository: https://github.com/ridiculousfish/cdecl-blocks
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/cdecl-blocks
Language: C
License Family: other
Last push: 2026-03-02T21:51:48+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 64/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 70, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3565, "days_push": 184, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1096, forks 88 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:34.346077+00:00)

## What it is
cdecl is a classic command-line tool that translates between English descriptions of C/C++ declarations (e.g. 'declare foo as array 5 of pointer to function returning int') and actual C declarations, and vice versa. This fork adds support for Apple's blocks syntax.

## Use cases
- translate english phrases into C declarations
- decode complicated C function pointer declarations
- understand C gibberish like int (*foo[5])()
- parse declarations using Apple blocks syntax
- convert C declarations to pseudo-english explanations
- figure out typecast syntax

## When to choose
- you need to read or write tricky C/C++ declarations involving function pointers or arrays
- you work with Apple blocks syntax and need declaration help
- you want a fast offline terminal tool rather than a website

## When to avoid
- you need a modern C parser or compiler frontend
- you need IDE integration or GUI tooling
- you require a maintained project with an explicit license

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: parser, cli, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, programming-languages
- platform: cli, cross-platform
- tags: cdecl, c-declarations, apple-blocks, c-gibberish-translator, readline, command-line, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- ridiculousfish/cdecl-blocks (main) score 64

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:34.346077+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T06:47:12.280151+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/ridiculousfish/cdecl-blocks (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:34.346077+00:00, sha 8fa1d15b0d1b)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.