Can I call a function from LabVIEW that is at certain ordinal in some DLL, while the ordinal is determined at run-time?
I'm also interested if there is something similar to function pointers, like in 'C' language, which hold some dynamic function address?
If your intention is to call function by address, you will have to develop a wrapper in C by compiling a DLL from a code like that:
typedef int (*real_func_type)(int);
int wrapper(size_t address, int param1)
{
return ((real_func_type)address)(param1);
}
where real function proto is
int real_func(int param);
If your second question is whether LabVIEW has something similar to a function pointer, then the answer is that the closest thing is a VI reference. There are different types of VI references and different ways of creating and using them, so you would need to read up on that.
In any case, VI references are purely a LabVIEW construct. There's no mechanism for interacting with C function pointers directly and you can't create a function pointer to a VI and give that to the DLL function. For something like that you would also need some wrappers.
In your block diagram, create a case structure that takes your ordinal value. In each frame of the case structure, invoke the appropriate function from the DLL.
Related
I have a Modelica external C function that calls a function that is in a .dll.
In the C function in the .dll I would like to make use of the ModelicaError() function. However when
#include ModelicaUtilities.h is included a number of errors occur.
What is the correct method for doing this?
I take it I'll need to link against an existing Dymola .lib, which one? What should DYMOLA_STATIC be defined as?
Or should I be compiling the .dll in such a way that these missing functions will be available after compilation with the model?
Any insight into this would be great, Thanks
From all what I know it is currently not possible in a tool-independent way to have shared objects (DLLs on Win) depending on ModelicaError (or any other functions of ModelicaUtilities). See https://github.com/modelica/ModelicaSpecification/issues/2191 for the open issue on the Modelica Language specification.
To use ModelicaError function in a dll you send the a pointer to the ModelicaError function. To do this from Dymola create a wrapper function that passes the pointer to the ModelicaError function to the dll function. For example MathLibraryWrapper:
#pragma once
#include "MathLibrary.h"
int fibonacci_next_int_wrap()
{
return fibonacci_next_int(&ModelicaError);
}
This calls the fibonacci_next_int function which is in MathLibary.cpp in the dll. This is modified to accept a pointer to the ModelicaError function.
int fibonacci_next_int(void(*mError)(const char *))
{
(*mError)("broken");
return (int)fibonacci_next();
}
If this is run it will immediately crash with "broken".
Is it possible to create variables to be a specific type in Lua?
E.g. int x = 4
If this is not possible, is there at least some way to have a fake "type" shown before the variable so that anyone reading the code will know what type the variable is supposed to be?
E.g. function addInt(int x=4, int y=5), but x/y could still be any type of variable? I find it much easier to type the variable's type before it rather than putting a comment at above the function to let any readers know what type of variable it is supposed to be.
The sole reason I'm asking isn't to limit the variable to a specific data type, but simply to have the ability to put a data type before the variable, whether it does anything or not, to let the reader know what type of variable that it is supposed to be without getting an error.
You can do this using comments:
local x = 4 -- int
function addInt(x --[[int]],
y --[[int]] )
You can make the syntax a = int(5) from your other comment work using the following:
function int(a) return a end
function string(a) return a end
function dictionary(a) return a end
a = int(5)
b = string "hello, world!"
c = dictionary({foo = "hey"})
Still, this doesn't really offer any benefits over a comment.
The only way I can think of to do this, would be by creating a custom type in C.
Lua Integer type
No. But I understand your goal is to improve understanding when reading and writing functions calls.
Stating the expected data type of parameters adds only a little in terms of giving a specification for the function. Also, some function parameters are polymorphic, accepting a specific value, or a function or table from which to obtain the value for a context in which the function operates. See string.gsub, for example.
When reading a function call, the only thing known at the call site is the name of the variable or field whose value is being invoked as a function (sometimes read as the "name" of the function) and the expressions being passed as actual parameters. It is sometimes helpful to refactor parameter expressions into named local variables to add to the readability.
When writing a function call, the name of the function is key. The names of the formal parameters are also helpful. But still, names (like types) do not comprise much of a specification. The most help comes from embedded structured documentation used in conjunction with an IDE that infers the context of a name and performs content assistance and presentations of available documentation.
luadoc is one such a system of documentation. You can write luadoc for function you declare.
Eclipse Koneki LDT is one such an IDE. Due to the dynamic nature of Lua, it is a difficult problem so LDT is not always as helpful as one would like. (To be clear, LDT does not use luadoc; It evolved its own embedded documentation system.)
If you take this method call for instance(from other post)
- (int)methodName:(int)arg1 withArg2:(int)arg2
{
// Do something crazy!
return someInt;
}
Is withArg2 actually ever used for anything inside this method ?
withArg2 is part of the method name (it is usually written without arguments as methodName:withArg2: if you want to refer to the method in the documentation), so no, it is not used for anything inside the method.
As Tamás points out, withArg2 is part of the method name. If you write a function with the exact same name in C, it will look like this:
int methodNamewithArg2(int arg1, int arg2)
{
// Do something crazy!
return someInt;
}
Coming from other programming languages, the Objective-C syntax at first might appear weird, but after a while you will start to understand how it makes your whole code more expressive. If you see the following C++ function call:
anObject.subString("foobar", 2, 3, true);
and compare it to a similar Objective-C method invocation
[anObject subString:"foobar" startingAtCharacter:2 numberOfCharacters:3 makeResultUpperCase:YES];
it should become clear what I mean. The example may be contrived, but the point is to show that embedding the meaning of the next parameter into the method name allows to write very readable code. Even if you choose horrible variable names or use literals (as in the example above), you will still be able to make sense of the code without having to look up the method documentation.
You would call this method as follows:
int i=[self methodName:arg1 withArg2:arg2];
This is just iOs's way of making the code easier to read.
Is it possible to call a function by name in Objective C? For instance, if I know the name of a function ("foo"), is there any way I can get the pointer to the function using that name and call it? I stumbled across a similar question for python here and it seems it is possible there. I want to take the name of a function as input from the user and call the function. This function does not have to take any arguments.
For Objective-C methods, you can use performSelector… or NSInvocation, e.g.
NSString *methodName = #"doSomething";
[someObj performSelector:NSSelectorFromString(methodName)];
For C functions in dynamic libraries, you can use dlsym(), e.g.
void *dlhandle = dlopen("libsomething.dylib", RTLD_LOCAL);
void (*function)(void) = dlsym(dlhandle, "doSomething");
if (function) {
function();
}
For C functions that were statically linked, not in general. If the corresponding symbol hasn’t been stripped from the binary, you can use dlsym(), e.g.
void (*function)(void) = dlsym(RTLD_SELF, "doSomething");
if (function) {
function();
}
Update: ThomasW wrote a comment pointing to a related question, with an answer by dreamlax which, in turn, contains a link to the POSIX page about dlsym. In that answer, dreamlax notes the following with regard to converting a value returned by dlsym() to a function pointer variable:
The C standard does not actually define behaviour for converting to and from function pointers. Explanations vary as to why; the most common being that not all architectures implement function pointers as simple pointers to data. On some architectures, functions may reside in an entirely different segment of memory that is unaddressable using a pointer to void.
With this in mind, the calls above to dlsym() and the desired function can be made more portable as follows:
void (*function)(void);
*(void **)(&function) = dlsym(dlhandle, "doSomething");
if (function) {
(*function)();
}
I've been using std::unique_ptr to store some COM resources, and provided a custom deleter function. However, many of the COM functions want pointer-to-pointer. Right now, I'm using the implementation detail of _Myptr, in my compiler. Is it going to break unique_ptr to be accessing this data member directly, or should I store a gajillion temporary pointers to construct unique_ptr rvalues from?
COM objects are reference-countable by their nature, so you shouldn't use anything except reference-counting smart pointers like ATL::CComPtr or _com_ptr_t even if it seems inappropriate for your usecase (I fully understand your concerns, I just think you assign too much weight to them). Both classes are designed to be used in all valid scenarios that arise when COM objects are used, including obtaining the pointer-to-pointer. Yes, that's a bit too much functionality, but if you don't expect any specific negative consequences you can't tolerate you should just use those classes - they are designed exactly for this purpose.
I've had to tackle the same problem not too long ago, and I came up with two different solutions:
The first was a simple wrapper that encapsulated a 'writeable' pointer and could be std::moved into my smart pointer. This is just a little more convenient that using the temp pointers you are mentioning, since you cannot define the type directly at the call-site.
Therefore, I didn't stick with that. So what I did was a Retrieve helper-function that would get the COM function and return my smart-pointer (and do all the temporary pointer stuff internally). Now this trivially works with free-functions that only have a single T** parameter. If you want to use this on something more complex, you can just pass in the call via std::bind and only leave the pointer-to-be-returned free.
I know that this is not directly what you're asking, but I think it's a neat solution to the problem you're having.
As a side note, I'd prefer boost's intrusive_ptr instead of std::unique_ptr, but that's a matter of taste, as always.
Edit: Here's some sample code that's transferred from my version using boost::intrusive_ptr (so it might not work out-of-the box with unique_ptr)
template <class T, class PtrType, class PtrDel>
HRESULT retrieve(T func, std::unique_ptr<PtrType, PtrDel>& ptr)
{
ElementType* raw_ptr=nullptr;
HRESULT result = func(&raw_ptr);
ptr.reset(raw_ptr);
return result;
}
For example, it can be used like this:
std::unique_ptr<IFileDialog, ComDeleter> FileDialog;
/*...*/
using std::bind;
using namespace std::placeholders;
std::unique_ptr<IShellItem, ComDeleter> ShellItem;
HRESULT status = retrieve(bind(&IFileDialog::GetResult, FileDialog, _1), ShellItem);
For bonus points, you can even let retrieve return the unique_ptr instead of taking it by reference. The functor that bind generates should have signature typedefs to derive the pointer type. You can then throw an exception if you get a bad HRESULT.
C++0x smart pointers have a portable way to get at the raw pointer container .get() or release it entirely with .release(). You could also always use &(*ptr) but that is less idiomatic.
If you want to use smart pointers to manage the lifetime of an object, but still need raw pointers to use a library which doesn't support smart pointers (including standard c library) you can use those functions to most conveniently get at the raw pointers.
Remember, you still need to keep the smart pointer around for the duration you want the object to live (so be aware of its lifetime).
Something like:
call_com_function( &my_uniq_ptr.get() ); // will work fine
return &my_localscope_uniq_ptr.get(); // will not
return &my_member_uniq_ptr.get(); // might, if *this will be around for the duration, etc..
Note: this is just a general answer to your question. How to best use COM is a separate issue and sharptooth may very well be correct.
Use a helper function like this.
template< class T >
T*& getPointerRef ( std::unique_ptr<T> & ptr )
{
struct Twin : public std::unique_ptr<T>::_Mybase {};
Twin * twin = (Twin*)( &ptr );
return twin->_Myptr;
}
check the implementation
int wmain ( int argc, wchar_t argv[] )
{
std::unique_ptr<char> charPtr ( new char[25] );
delete getPointerRef(charPtr);
getPointerRef(charPtr) = 0;
return charPtr.get() != 0;
}