[MACTCL] Problems with C extension/Swig for Carbon functions

[Kevin W. <sw...@wo...>]

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Hi everyone,

I'm trying to write a Tcl wrapper for the Carbon Help API
(AHRegisterHelpBook, AHGotoPage, etc.). Because I'm not very fluent in
C, I'm working with Swig. And I'm stuck. I get an extension generated,
but when I load the library into tclsh, after I try to run commands from
the Help API, I get an error message: "invalid command name."

Here are the steps I'm taking:

1. First, I'm writing a Swig interface file. Since I want to simply wrap
the Carbon Help API, the file is short, as follows:

%module tclAppleHelp

%{
#include
"/System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/Help.framework/Versions/A/Headers/AppleHelp.h"

%}

2. Next, I run Swig:

swig -tcl -namespace tclAppleHelp.i


3. This generates a C file, tclAppleHelp_wrap.c. Next, I compile the file:

gcc -framework Tcl -framework Carbon -dynamiclib tclAppleHelp_wrap.c -o
tclAppleHelp.so

4. This works. Then I move into tclsh and run this command:

load tclAppleHelp.so

That also works.

5. Then, I get stuck. I'm not sure how to invoke the functions I've
supposedly wrapped. Swig generates the tclapplehelp:: namespace, so I've
tried a few variations: "tclapplehelp::AHRegisterHelpBook" is one
example, which generates the "invalid command name" error.

These functions generally only work when called inside an app bundle, so
I don't expect to get perfect output, but the error messages indicate to
me that the functions are not being loaded in the way I thought they would.

It's quite possible I should include some other header files as well,
but I'm not sure which ones.

Any help is appreciated. Once I get this extension built and tested in
my own applications, I'll release it as open-source under a BSD-style
license, and perhaps it can be considered for inclusion in the next BI
distro. I like using the native Apple help system in my programs, but I
now have to resort to Python hacks to get the help books loaded
properly, and I'd like a cleaner interface.

Thanks in advance.


- --
Cheers,

Kevin Walzer, PhD
WordTech Software
http://www.wordtech-software.com
sw at wordtech-software.com
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