view doc/manual/manual_dyncallback_api.tex @ 27:523c45dfa8fb

- refactored arm calling conventions' callvm code, so that the code that keeps the caller from overwriting the return value on some platforms also works on OpenBSD (before we casted the function pointer to have long long as return type, to hint the caller that there is one, but that triggers an intentional SIGABRT on OpenBSD for security reasons; now the decl reflects this, directly)
author cslag
date Tue, 15 Sep 2015 12:48:52 +0200
parents 3e629dc19168
children 1d68b4778979
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\newpage
\section{\emph{Dyncallback} C library API}

This library extends \product{dyncall} with function callback support, allowing
the user to dynamically create a callback object that can be called directly,
or passed to functions expecting a function-pointer as argument.\\
\\
Invoking a \product{dyncallback} calls into a user-defined unified handler that 
permits iteration and thus dynamic handling over the called-back-function's
parameters.\\
\\
The flexibility is constrained by the set of supported types, though.\\
\\
For style conventions and supported types, see \product{dyncall} API section.
In order to use \product{dyncallback}, include {\tt "dyncall\_callback.h"}.

\subsection{Callback Object}

The \emph{Callback Object} is the core component to this library.

\paragraph{Types}

\begin{lstlisting}[language=c]
typedef struct DCCallback DCCallback;
\end{lstlisting}

\paragraph{Details}
The \emph{Callback Object} is an object that mimics a fully typed function
call to another function (a generic callback handler, in this case).\\
\\
This means, a pointer to this object is passed to a function accepting a pointer
to a callback function \emph{as the very callback function pointer itself}.
Or, if called directly, cast a pointer to this object to a function pointer and
issue a call.


\subsection{Allocation}

\paragraph{Functions}

\begin{lstlisting}[language=c]
DCCallback* dcbNewCallback(const char*        signature,
                           DCCallbackHandler* funcptr,
                           void*              userdata);
void dcbFreeCallback(DCCallback* pcb);
\end{lstlisting}

\lstinline{dcbNewCallback} creates and initializes a new \emph{Callback} object,
where \lstinline{signature} is the needed function signature (format is the
one outlined in the language bindings-section of this manual, see \ref{sigchar})
of the function to mimic, \lstinline{funcptr} is a pointer to a callback handler,
and \lstinline{userdata} a pointer to custom data that might be useful in the
handler.
Use \lstinline{dcbFreeCallback} to destroy the \emph{Callback} object.\\
\\
As with \capi{dcNewCallVM}/\capi{dcFree}, this will allocate memory using the
system allocators or custom overrides.


\subsection{Callback handler}

The unified callback handler's declaration used when creating a \capi{DCCallback}
is:

\begin{lstlisting}
char cbHandler(DCCallback* cb,
               DCArgs*     args,
               DCValue*    result,
               void*       userdata);
\end{lstlisting}

\capi{cb} is a pointer to the \capi{DCCallback} object in use, \capi{args} allows
for dynamic iteration over the called-back-function's arguments (input) and
\capi{result} is a pointer to a \capi{DCValue} object in order to store the
callback's return value (output, to be set by handler).\\
Finally, \capi{userdata} is a pointer to some user defined data that can be
set when creating the callback object.
The handler itself returns a signature character (see \ref{sigchar}) specifying the
data type used for \capi{result}.