additions to call()ing DLLs

ID:133197
 
Jan 31 2009, 8:28 pm
I would like additions to call() so that it can call most DLLs/.so's and pass arguments in the normal format, rather than passing argc/argv and only passing strings.

For example, instead of doing this:
struct MyStruct {int a; int b; char *c;}
extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) char *MyFunc(int n, char *v[])
{
    if(n != 3)
        return "Error, invalid arguments";
    char *arg1 = v[0];
    int arg2 = atoi(v[1]);
    MyStruct *arg3 = StringToMyStruct(v[2]);
    ...
}


call("mydll.dll","_MyFunc")(myString, num2text(myNum), MyStructToString(myStruct))


arguments would be passed like this:
struct MyStruct {int a; int b; char *c;}
extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) char *MyFunc(int n, char *arg1, int arg2, MyStruct *arg3)
{
    if(n != 3)
        return "Error, invalid arguments";
    ...
}


call("mydll.dll","_MyFunc")(myString, myNum, myStruct)


(The first argument N would still be necessary because otherwise the DLL doesn't know if some arguments are missing)

The main advantage of this would be the ability to call system DLLs/.so's without writing wrappers.
Feb 1 2009, 5:18 am
Unlikely to happen due to the annoying amount of work necessary to do such behavior, not to mention BYOND cannot guarantee that it is calling the library function properly. A standard signature for all BYOND-callable functions is better.