Re: Calling C++ SDK methods from Lua

[jjensen@...]

See also LuaPlus's Call Dispatcher at http://wwhiz.com/LuaPlus/index.html.

Josh

> Hello!
>
> I have a C++ SDK that I would like to call from Lua.
>
> Here some basic info about the SDK :
>
> 1) It is mature, meaning that it's classes and signatures will not change.
> In fact, we're freezing the SDK for the entire duration of the project.
>
> 2) It's methods do not support the Lua calling convention [int
> *fn(lua_State
> *L)] but I could put a thin Wrapper on top of the SDK that supported the
> calling convention, the methods of which would delegate to the actual SDK
> methods (i.e. a proxy).  The Wrapper would then be registered with Lua.
>
> 3) The SDK method signatures require atomic types (bools, ints and
> C-strings
> mostly), and return the same.  Meaning:  We must be able to pass the SDK
> methods atomic parameters, and return these also!!!!
>
> ***** Note: We wish to use LUA 5, i.e. the latest version.
>
> To make matters even simpler, we intend to call only a few methods in some
> of the base classes of the SDK.  By this I mean to say, the number of
> total
> required SDK methods needed to be accessable from Lua will be small ( <
> 20).
>
> I have been studying all available documentation:
> - The Programming in Lua book
> - The Wiki tutorials
>
> I've looked at the following notes and papers:
> - Luabind
> - toLua
> - toLua++
> - Luna
> - Technical Note 5  - A Template class for binding C++ to Lua (uses Luna)
> - Tutorial  "Binding Code To Lua"
> - Tutorial  "Simple Cpp Binding"
> - Tutorial  "Simpler Cpp Binding"
> - Tutorial  "Do it yourself Cpp Binding"
>
>
> Here is my question:  There seem to be several similiar but competing
> techniques.  Some generate code, some not.  Given my preconditions as
> stated
> above (stable, unchanging SDK; not too many methods need to be referenced;
> necessity of passing (ints, bools, strings) to the called SDK methods, and
> returning these to Lua), can anyone make a recommendation as to what would
> be the best approach to use?
>
> I cannot say if we need to go in the other direction also, i.e. C calling
> Lua.  Maybe later, I cannot rule it out.
>
> I would like to get a skeleton (Lua calling the SDK) up and running asap.
> I
> think because I am new to Lua the simplest solution might be preferrable,
> but which?
>
> ***** Also: I looked at the toLua++, and downloaded the file
> (tolua++-current.tar.bz2).  Is this file usable on Windows?  How do I
> unpack
> it?
>
>
> Thanks,
> Mark
>
>
>
>
>
>