Hello All,

I am relatively new to TCL, the topic I am exploring is that I would like to see whether we can call the methods from my custom c ++ library in TCL scripts. Is there any command available in TCL to call the method from external C ++ library. I am assuming this library has to be put along with the other TCL libraries.

Any réponse is much appreciated.

Thanks,
Ganesh.

Lakshmi Ganesh <lakshmiganesh.padmanaban@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello All,
>
> I am relatively new to TCL, the topic I am exploring is that I would
> like to see whether we can call the methods from my custom c ++
> library in TCL scripts. Is there any command available in TCL to
> call the method from external C ++ library. I am assuming this
> library has to be put along with the other TCL libraries.

Tcl does not have a native foreign function interface.

The traditional way to do this is to write a small amount of C (or in
your case C++) glue to provide that interface between scripts and C (or
C++) functions.

However, there is a FFI extension:

https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/Ffidl

The wiki page does say the last update was 2018, so your mileage may
vary with it. The page also links to a couple other extensions.

On Wednesday, April 26, 2023 at 12:31:29 PM UTC-5, Rich wrote:
> Lakshmi Ganesh <lakshmiganes...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hello All,
> >
> > I am relatively new to TCL, the topic I am exploring is that I would
> > like to see whether we can call the methods from my custom c ++
> > library in TCL scripts. Is there any command available in TCL to
> > call the method from external C ++ library. I am assuming this
> > library has to be put along with the other TCL libraries.
> Tcl does not have a native foreign function interface.
>
> The traditional way to do this is to write a small amount of C (or in
> your case C++) glue to provide that interface between scripts and C (or
> C++) functions.
>
> However, there is a FFI extension:
>
> https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/Ffidl
>
> The wiki page does say the last update was 2018, so your mileage may
> vary with it. The page also links to a couple other extensions.

Thank you very much for the pointer RIch !!!

Am 26.04.23 um 18:22 schrieb Lakshmi Ganesh:
> I am relatively new to TCL, the topic I am exploring is that I would like to see whether we can call the methods from my custom c ++ library in TCL scripts. Is there any command available in TCL to call the method from external C ++ library. I am assuming this library has to be put along with the other TCL libraries.
>

You can use SWIG to write the glue code for: https://www.swig.org/ SWIG
can interface functions, classes, and (to some extent) templates.

Christian

At Wed, 26 Apr 2023 11:17:59 -0700 (PDT) Lakshmi Ganesh <lakshmiganesh.padmanaban@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> On Wednesday, April 26, 2023 at 12:31:29 PM UTC-5, Rich wrote:
> > Lakshmi Ganesh <lakshmiganes...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Hello All,
> > >
> > > I am relatively new to TCL, the topic I am exploring is that I would
> > > like to see whether we can call the methods from my custom c ++
> > > library in TCL scripts. Is there any command available in TCL to
> > > call the method from external C ++ library. I am assuming this
> > > library has to be put along with the other TCL libraries.
> > Tcl does not have a native foreign function interface.
> >
> > The traditional way to do this is to write a small amount of C (or in
> > your case C++) glue to provide that interface between scripts and C (or
> > C++) functions.
> >
> > However, there is a FFI extension:
> >
> > https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/Ffidl
> >
> > The wiki page does say the last update was 2018, so your mileage may
> > vary with it. The page also links to a couple other extensions.
>
>
> Thank you very much for the pointer RIch !!!

There is a program called "SWIG" (Simplified Wrapper and Interface Generator),
that can be "fed" a C or C++ header file and will generate a C or C++ source
file that will provide the "glue" code.

>
>

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On 4/26/2023 9:22 AM, Lakshmi Ganesh wrote:
> Hello All,
>
> I am relatively new to TCL, the topic I am exploring is that I would like to see whether we can call the methods from my custom c ++ library in TCL scripts. Is there any command available in TCL to call the method from external C ++ library. I am assuming this library has to be put along with the other TCL libraries.
>
> Any réponse is much appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Ganesh.

I found Ashok's CFFI package to work well.

https://cffi.magicsplat.com/

On 4/26/2023 9:52 PM, Lakshmi Ganesh wrote:
> Hello All,
>
> I am relatively new to TCL, the topic I am exploring is that I would like to see whether we can call the methods from my custom c ++ library in TCL scripts. Is there any command available in TCL to call the method from external C ++ library. I am assuming this library has to be put along with the other TCL libraries.
>
> Any réponse is much appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Ganesh.

Does your library export a C++ API or a C API? Second, is the library a
shared library or static?

The ffidl/cffi solutions will only work well with shared libraries that
export a C API.

There is no standard C++ ABI (name mangling, parameter passing etc. all
can differ between compilers and even versions of the same compiler). So
if you are exporting a C++ API, then you will need to either write your
own wrapper or use SWIG (compiling with the same compiler as your library.)

/Ashok