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