[plt-scheme] C++ Bindings using FFI

On 09/05/06, Eli Barzilay <eli at barzilay.org> wrote:
> On May  9, Hans Oesterholt-Dijkema wrote:
> > Eli Barzilay schreef:
> > >
> > > If you can get the type information in some readable format
> > > (readable without a C-parser), then it should be easy to do the
> > > same with Scheme, maybe easier.
> >
> > Ahum. I'd personally use SWIG to generate the type information in
> > 'some readable format'.
>
> Yes, we're going in circles here -- I already said that parsing header
> file is a good feature.
>
>
> > > My personal conclusion about this is that for some strange reason
> > > people completely miss the use of the Scheme interface.  It's a
> > > different mode of thinking, and you should just try it out to see
> > > the differences.
> > >
> > I actually like the idea of using the scheme interface. I just don't
> > want to code the scheme FFI code for 12.000 functions and a couple
> > of hundred enumeration types.
>
> If you use swig to generate such a readable description file, you
> could use it for this too.
>
>
> > Also I have questions. How would I resolve the memory management
> > differences between scheme and Gtk (see
> > http://www.elemental-programming.org/mzgtk2-mzgtk2-memory-management.html).
>
> I don't know of any gtk memory management facilities, and looking at
> your page the problem is the usual who-will-free-this-object.  If the
> whole interface is in Scheme, then the easiest thing is to register a
> finalizer that will delete the C object -- the whole thing can be
> easily automated (for example, see `defmagick-pointer-type' in the
> magick interface).
>
> It may be arbitrarily complicated, of course, if you have sharing
> between GTK objects without going through a Scheme object.  This is,
> BTW, one point where header files don't have enough information, and
> neither SWIG nor any other tool can save you -- you need to
> distinguish constructors, from functions that return references to
> existing objects.
>
>
> > How would I let callbacks work?
>
> You send a Scheme function.  (You just need to hold a reference to it
> in Scheme so the GC won't take it away.)
>
>
> > How would I make property setting work with GtkValue types?  How
> > would I be able to use the GObject introspection facilities? How
> > would I code with use of the FFI a specific Gtk list-model (that
> > requires a new 'GObject derived class') to be able to use the
> > functional way mzscheme to fill up tables?
>
> I don't know about these aspects of GTK.  There was a GTK interface
> project that dealt with some of these.
>

Perhaps Corey and Daniel have already worked this out for their
package and might give a few hints?

> --
>           ((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (x x)))          Eli Barzilay:
>                   http://www.barzilay.org/                 Maze is Life!
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Paulo Jorge Matos - pocm at sat inesc-id pt
Web: http://sat.inesc-id.pt/~pocm
Computer and Software Engineering
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