[Mono-dev] MonoBind - C++ bindings library [include Mono Patch]

[virgile.bello at free.fr]

Quoting Paolo Molaro <lupus at ximian.com>:

> On 03/28/07 virgile.bello at free.fr wrote:
> > As I worked on a C++ binding library for mono, very close to
> > boost::python/luabind syntax, I had few minor modification to do in Mono
> > sources. The patch is attached.
> >
> > I was wondering if it was possible to include them in mono.
> > The missing thing was the possibility to bind a pointer argument to an
> internal
> > call. It is required in order to make all the C++ wrapper/proxy statically
> > linked through template metaprogramming.
> [...]
> > Later, I would like the registration code to auto-generate C# header.
>
> I think auto-generation is the only option, unless this is supposed to
> be used for very few classes.
>
> Anyway, I took a look at the code, but I don't see a reason why the core
> of mono would need changes for this, you can do it all without any
> mono changes.
> What you basically are doing is that, given a icall method declaration,
> to actually call a function with a different signature. Why not use the
> correct signature in the first place?
>
> [C code (or C-representation of the C++ ABI?)]
> 	void icall (void *this_ptr, void *hidden_arg, int a);
>
> [Old C# code: mono core changes needed because the signature is incorrect]
> 	[MethodImplAttribute(MethodImplOptions.InternalCall)]
> 	extern public void Test (int a);
>
> [New C# code: no core mono changes needed]
> 	[MethodImplAttribute(MethodImplOptions.InternalCall)]
> 	extern void Test (IntPtr hidden_arg, int a);
>
> 	static readonly IntPtr Test_hidden_arg;
>
> 	public void Test (int a) {
> 		Test (Test_hidden_arg, a);
> 	}
>
> And you will initialize Test_hidden_arg as part of the binding startup
> code with the embedding API or even with an icall in C#:
>
> 	static readonly IntPtr Test_hidden_arg = MonoBind.CreateSig ("vi");
>
> where "vi" means void for the return type and i is the first argument of
> type int, though there are also other options, like (using params arrays):
>
> 	static readonly IntPtr Test_hidden_arg = MonoBind.CreateSig (null, typeof
> (int));
>
> This makes it much more flexible and also much easier to deal with if
> you automatically generate the C# side.

Yes you're right, that's the first approach I took. It's just I felt it was
cleaner to do it the other way. But well, since those definitions are
auto-generated I suppose it's not a big deal doubling everything.

Thanks for the review.