Re: [Swig-user] Google SoC

[Thomas J. <tho...@ut...>]

William S Fulton wrote:
> Thomas Jones wrote:
>> I'm a 3rd year Computer Science student at University of Toronto, I'm 
>> interested in doing either a C target or a D target ( 
>> http://www.digitalmars.com/d/ ).
>>
>> I taught myself C/C++ in high school, but I haven't done much C++ 
>> since learning it, (I also learned a pre-standard version of it... 
>> However I have written lots of C and Java, so I do have some OOP 
>> experience, although I've written more C than Java.  I have never 
>> used SWIG, so I'll need to learn it as I go, although I am interested 
>> in learning how to use it.
>>
>
> Hi Thomas
>
> There is a D target language developed outside of SWIG, see 
> http://www.swig.org/compat.html#SupportedLanguages. It looks 
> abandoned, so there is scope to take what was achieved and merge it 
> into the latest version of SWIG. It will probably need updating to 
> compile and adding new features. You'd have to find out the status of 
> the project when it was abandoned to evaluate whether or not it is 
> worth using. I suggest liasing with the D community to see if there is 
> any more info on the module. I understand D is quite similar to Java. 
> If the JNI side is similar it might be quicker and easier to take the 
> Java module, which is very mature and stable, and port it to D. That 
> would be a great achievement.
>
> The C target it likely to be more challenging as there could be some 
> odd quirks mixing C and C++. It is certainly something that will be 
> interesting and a bit different to the other language modules. You 
> won't have to deal with the runtime system, so that makes it a lot 
> easier. The scripting languages use the runtime system - simply put, 
> it is a replacement for static type checking that a strongly typed 
> language like C++/Java does. I'd suggest looking at the C# or Java 
> module as a starting point and modifying those to generate C.
>
> Let us know your thoughts.
>
> William
>
Actually D can link directly with C code, all it needs is an extern(C) 
<prototype> in a D file, so binding C++ to D essentially consists of a 
C++ to C, then generate a bunch of prototypes in D, and wrapper classes 
so that it acts like the C++.

D cannot link directly to C++, unlike C, since it has it's own name 
mangling and such, and C++'s type system is heinously complex and cannot 
map directly on to D's (C's can).