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Re: object-model: Wrapping Subversion C-structs in C++

From: Steinar Bang <sb_at_dod.no>
Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2010 15:10:50 +0200

>>>>> Steinar Bang <sb_at_dod.no>:

> What exactly is it you want to do? Have a thin C++ wrapper around C
> objects, where the C objects "do the work"? Why do you want to?
> Ie. what benefit do you expect to get, compared to just using the C
> objects from inside your C++ code?

Another pattern that I've used with some success (eg. when wrapping the
W3C libwww as HTTP/FTP/etc. support in a Qt application):

 - Create a C++ class that corresponds to the C API you would like to
   wrap
 - Where the C API would return a pointer to some struct, return a C++
   object that holds a pointer to the struct and has methods
   corresponding to the operations that can be done on the struct using
   the API
 - Life cycle management would be handled by the API and the C++ object
   wrapping the API (though in some cases the wrapper object destructor
   might hand the C pointer back to the API)

Variations over the theme:
 - The C++ wrappers have virtual methods
 - The API wrapping object return pointers to the C++ objects rather
   than instances (typically for objects with virtual methods)
 - The API wrapping object return smart pointers to the C++ objects (but
   as these instances will be pointer sized objects, this doesn't seem
   very useful...)

The first trouble spot one will run into is non-primitive argument
values and method return values. Eg.
 - Life cycle of returned wrapper objects
 - Strings
  - Minimize copies in and out of std::string
  - Minimize recodning from UTF-8-coded char* to UTF-16, or UCS-4 in
    std::wstring

But they are overcomable.
Received on 2010-09-25 15:11:49 CEST

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