Q: What is the simplest way to generate a C++ lib to a Go package

[xlab]

Q: What is the simplest way to generate a C++ lib to a Go package

[xlab]

Hi! I searched for ways to autogenerate C wrappers for C++ code but couldn't find any. This makes me sad, because it forces me to find somebody who already done any C wrapper and use that work, or create my own from scratch, which is very tedious.

For example, there is Box2D https://github.com/erincatto/Box2D, and luckily it doesn't update too frequently. It means that these C wrappers https://github.com/nical/box2d.rs/tree/master/c/src/Box2D/Dynamics still can be used to generate bindings and they won't be outdated. Sometimes authors of good C++ libraries provide and maintain C API.

If I had time, it's actually possible to write some wrapper generator for C++ using LLVM API, but that's another story.

[Akagi201]

PS: I am also interested in building a tool that can auto generate C wrappers for C++ code. Haha. Hope I can make one some day.

[xlab]

@Akagi201 Thanks, cgen looked very promising but broke my heart once again. It fails to parse Box2D headers which are simple as hell. This is actually problem of all Haskell translators —

1. Tries to be as generalised as possible;
2. Fails on almost any real-world case scenario;
3. Can't be patched by any other community because it's Haskell.

:(

[xlab]

@Akagi201 Yeah, something like this can be re-written in Go using Clang bindings (300 lines of code lol). Then add some configuration options (currently, the headers and class names are hard-coded) and some prettifying logic. https://github.com/go-clang/v3.9

This CPP2C example, once patched to include proper class names, works fine on Box2D code. LLVM is very, very handy there.

[xlab]

Maybe https://github.com/EricssonResearch/openwebrtc?

[Akagi201]

@xlab I found one interesting project to generate C header from CPP headers. https://github.com/anttisalonen/cgen

You may have to look.

[Akagi201]

Found another POC here. https://github.com/samanbarghi/CPP2C