Re: Passing C++ template functions (static members) as C callbacks

From:
Matt Messina <messina@yahoo.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
Wed, 6 Jun 2007 08:19:12 CST
Message-ID:
<1181089802.615258.21470@g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>

On Jun 5, 5:51 pm, Ema <oriani.blue_re...@bancaimi.it> wrote:

I'm trying to interface a C library built with compiler A (in this
case Sun CC) with a template class compiled with compiler B (in this
case GNU/g++).


Mathias Gaunard <loufoque@gmail.com> wrote:

How the hell can a template function follow the C ABI?
A template generates functions with the parameters you provide,
meaning each generated function will be given some name.
With the C ABI, you need one unique name.


If the function is used as a callback, its name doesn't matter.

And nobody said that the template parameters have to be used as
function parameters. For example:

   extern "C" {
   typedef unsigned int pthread_key_t;
   int pthread_key_create(pthread_key_t*, void(*)(void*));
   int pthread_key_delete(pthread_key_t);
   int pthread_setspecific(pthread_key_t, const void*);
   void* pthread_getspecific(pthread_key_t);
   }

   template<class T>
   class thread_specific_ptr
   {
   public:
     thread_specific_ptr()
       { pthread_key_create(&key_, &destroy_); }
     ~thread_specific_ptr()
       { pthread_key_delete(key_); }
     T& operator*()
       {
         T* p = static_cast<T*>(pthread_getspecific(key_));
         if (p == 0)
         {
           p = new T;
           pthread_setspecific(key_, p);
         }
         return *p;
       }
     // ...
   private:
     /*extern "C"*/ static void destroy_(void* p)
       { delete static_cast<T*>(p); }
     pthread_key_t key_;
     // ...
   };

Note that thread_specific_ptr::destroy_() has the same signature but
a different implementation for each template instantiation. But the
call to pthread_key_create() passes a pointer to a C++ function where
a pointer to a C function is expected.

The commented out <<extern "C">> is not valid, but it would be nice
if it were (or some other syntax that gave the same result).
--
Matt Messina
messina@yahoo.com

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