2023-05-19 03:18:38 -04:00
|
|
|
<HTML>
|
|
|
|
|
<HEAD>
|
|
|
|
|
<TITLE>FFIGEN Home Page</TITLE>
|
|
|
|
|
<LINK REV="made" HREF="mailto:lth@acm.org">
|
|
|
|
|
</HEAD>
|
|
|
|
|
<BODY>
|
|
|
|
|
<H1>FFIGEN</H1>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"A good foreign function interface is 25% code and 75% policy."
|
|
|
|
|
<HR>
|
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FFIGEN (Foreign Function Interface GENerator) is a program suite that
|
|
|
|
|
facilitates the writing of translators from C header files to foreign
|
|
|
|
|
function interfaces for particular language implementations.
|
|
|
|
|
|
2023-05-19 03:28:13 -04:00
|
|
|
<P>
|
2023-05-19 03:18:38 -04:00
|
|
|
|
2023-05-19 03:28:40 -04:00
|
|
|
<img src="ball.red.gif" alt="*">
|
2023-05-19 03:28:13 -04:00
|
|
|
FFIGEN Manifesto and Overview
|
2023-05-19 03:18:38 -04:00
|
|
|
<A href="manifesto.html">(HTML)</a> <A href="manifesto.ps.gz">(ps.gz, 26 KB)</A>
|
|
|
|
|
<BR>
|
2023-05-19 03:28:40 -04:00
|
|
|
<img src="ball.red.gif" alt="*">
|
2023-05-19 03:18:38 -04:00
|
|
|
FFIGEN User's Manual
|
|
|
|
|
<a href="userman.html">(HTML)</a> <A href="userman.ps.gz">(ps.gz, 30 KB)</A>
|
|
|
|
|
<BR>
|
2023-05-19 03:28:40 -04:00
|
|
|
<img src="ball.red.gif" alt="*">
|
2023-05-19 03:18:38 -04:00
|
|
|
FFIGEN Back-end for Chez Scheme Version 5
|
2023-05-19 03:28:13 -04:00
|
|
|
<A href="chez.ps.gz">(ps.gz, 52 KB)</A>
|
2023-05-19 03:18:38 -04:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
|
There are three motivating observations behind FFIGEN. The first is
|
|
|
|
|
that C header files are hard to parse because of the preprocessor,
|
|
|
|
|
general syntactic grunge, and the problem of getting the data layouts
|
|
|
|
|
right. The second is that foreign function interfaces differ widely and
|
|
|
|
|
that translations to different FFIs can't be the same, yet should share
|
|
|
|
|
work as much as possible. The third is that not all translations are
|
|
|
|
|
suitable for all purposes; there may be multiple valid translations -
|
|
|
|
|
each of which serves a different need - for any given language's FFI.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
For these reasons, a translator from C header syntax to an FFI should
|
|
|
|
|
have two parts: one target-independent front-end that translates from
|
|
|
|
|
the header file into a rational intermediate form and which can be used
|
|
|
|
|
with all translators, and a target-dependent back-end that translates
|
|
|
|
|
from the intermediate form to an FFI for the target system, using a
|
|
|
|
|
translation policy to guide the translation. This design nicely
|
|
|
|
|
facilitates writing back-ends for multiple languages, multiple FFIs per
|
|
|
|
|
language, and multiple policies per FFI.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FFIGEN is a system that implements the split-translation philosophy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<UL>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<LI>The FFIGEN front-end is based on the front-end of the freely
|
2023-05-19 03:28:13 -04:00
|
|
|
available, production quality, ANSI C compiler <em>lcc</em>. Using
|
2023-05-19 03:18:38 -04:00
|
|
|
<em>lcc</em> makes
|
|
|
|
|
the FFIGEN front end portable, complete, and extensible for special
|
|
|
|
|
purposes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<LI>The FFIGEN back-ends can be small (a back-end for Chez Scheme that
|
|
|
|
|
handles nearly all of C is 350 lines of Scheme code, for example), and
|
|
|
|
|
can be written in any language. Scheme is the preferred language for
|
|
|
|
|
back-ends right now, because the output syntax of the front-end,
|
|
|
|
|
although easily changeable, is that of S-expressions, and because a
|
|
|
|
|
back-end written in Scheme is already available for new back-ends to
|
|
|
|
|
build on.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
</UL>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The current version of FFIGEN is available as a set of modifications to
|
2023-05-19 03:28:13 -04:00
|
|
|
<em>lcc</em> version 3.4b; you also need to get the <em>lcc</em> sources.
|
2023-05-19 03:18:38 -04:00
|
|
|
The FFIGEN
|
|
|
|
|
distribution includes documentation on how to write back-ends and a
|
|
|
|
|
documented example back-end for the FFI of Chez Scheme version 5.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
2023-05-19 03:28:13 -04:00
|
|
|
<B> This is a preliminary release of FFIGEN. It works, but
|
2023-05-19 03:18:38 -04:00
|
|
|
is neither complete nor polished.</B>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
2023-05-19 03:28:40 -04:00
|
|
|
<img src="ball.red.gif" alt="*">
|
2023-05-19 03:28:13 -04:00
|
|
|
Click <A href="ffigen.tar.gz">here</A> to download the
|
|
|
|
|
full FFIGEN distribution. (148 KB)
|
|
|
|
|
<BR>
|
2023-05-19 03:18:38 -04:00
|
|
|
This archive has not been updated with the fixes in the bug fix file (below).
|
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
2023-05-19 03:28:40 -04:00
|
|
|
<img src="ball.red.gif" alt="*">
|
2023-05-19 03:18:38 -04:00
|
|
|
Click <A href="960213.tar.gz">here</A> to download bug fixes up to February 13, 1996. (29 KB) <BR>
|
|
|
|
|
Fixes to chez.sch to handle structs/unions that are declared but not
|
|
|
|
|
defined; function pointers; and unsigned shorts (a typo). Also a minor fix
|
|
|
|
|
to policy.sch to remove gratuitous non-standard-ness (use of reverse! rather
|
|
|
|
|
than reverse). Also included generated standard libraries for Chez Scheme
|
2023-05-19 03:28:13 -04:00
|
|
|
back-end (unknowingly left out of distribution). Unpack in <em>lcc</em> main
|
2023-05-19 03:18:38 -04:00
|
|
|
directory.
|
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
2023-05-19 03:28:40 -04:00
|
|
|
<img src="ball.red.gif" alt="*">
|
2023-05-19 03:28:13 -04:00
|
|
|
Click <A href="chez-policy.sch">here</A> to download an example of a Chez
|
2023-05-19 03:18:38 -04:00
|
|
|
Scheme policy file, left out of distribution.
|
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
2023-05-19 03:28:40 -04:00
|
|
|
<img src="ball.red.gif" alt="*">
|
2023-05-19 03:28:13 -04:00
|
|
|
Click <A href="lcc-3.4b.tar.gz">here</A> to download the <em>lcc</em>
|
2023-05-19 03:18:38 -04:00
|
|
|
3.4b distribution.
|
|
|
|
|
(965 KB)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<HR>
|
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Related systems:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<UL>
|
|
|
|
|
<LI> Kenneth Russell's <A href="http://www-white.media.mit.edu/~kbrussel/Header2Scheme">Header2Scheme</A>.
|
|
|
|
|
<LI> David Beazley's <A href="http://www.cs.utah.edu/~beazley/SWIG/">SWIG</A> system.
|
|
|
|
|
</UL>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
|
<HR>
|
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The <A HREF="todo.html">FFIGEN to-do list</A>.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="mailto:lth@acm.org"><I>lth@acm.org</I></A><BR>
|
|
|
|
|
24 May 2000
|
|
|
|
|
</BODY>
|
|
|
|
|
</HTML>
|
