Re: Newby question: How to change __index userdata method in C?

[Sebastian Wolff <sw@...>]

I am sorry for letting you know my frustration and my last "moody" and 
aggressive reply. Maybe it is better to clarify what my problem is:

I want to exchange the existing __index and __newindex metamethods by 
some C functions. This could be done like this:

	static lua_CFunction TMMatrix_original_index;
	static lua_CFunction TMMatrix_original_newindex;

	int TMMatrix_redefined_index(lua_State *L)
	{
		printf("CALLED redefined __index!\n");
		return (*TMMatrix_original_index)(L);
	}
	int TMMatrix_redefined_newindex(lua_State *L)
	{
		printf("CALLED redefined __newindex!\n");
		return (*TMMatrix_original_newindex)(L);
	}

I then register these functions. SWIG created a module "tm" which is 
represented as a table in Lua:

	const luaL_reg lua_mymatrix_functions[] =
	{
		{"TMMatrix_redefined_index", TMMatrix_redefined_index},
		{"TMMatrix_redefined_newindex", TMMatrix_redefined_newindex},
		{NULL,NULL},
	};
	luaL_register(L, "tm", lua_mymatrix_functions);

Then I call the following Lua script using luaL_dostring:

	local metaarray = getmetatable(tm.TMMatrix(1,1))
	__oldindex = metaarray.__index
	__oldnewindex = metaarray.__newindex
	metaarray.__index = tm.TMMatrix_redefined_index
	metaarray.__newindex = tm.TMMatrix_redefined_newindex

which creates a variable of userdata type tm.TMMatrix and changes its 
metatable.
I have stored the old metamethods in global variables. Thanks to your 
advice, Jerome, I can now save them in global C variables:

	lua_getglobal(L, "__oldindex");
	TMMatrix_original_index = lua_tocfunction (L, -1);
	lua_pop(L,1);

	lua_getglobal(L, "__oldnewindex");
	TMMatrix_original_newindex = lua_tocfunction (L, -1);
	lua_pop(L,1);

Executing the Lua script
	A = tm.TMMatrix(2,2)\n"
	y = A[1]
	A:func1(2)
	A[0] = 2
Will now call my own C functions and they in turn will call the 
original wrapper C functions.

So far so good. It is working, but the code is the opposite of being 
elegant. (1) I would like to eliminate the need of the global Lua 
variables __index and __oldindex.
(2) I would like to eliminate the script itself.
(3) I would like to eliminate the need of registering my 2 new functions.

For (1) and (2) I think what could help me is to know how I can get the 
metatable of a locally created object. Unfortunately I do not know how 
to create the userdata value "TMMatrix(3,3)" from C since that code is 
behind some blackbox wrapper, i.e. performing the Lua code
	local metaarray = getmetatable(tm.TMMatrix(1,1))
on C level. Once I have the metatable on stack I should be able to 
retrieve the metatable field "__index" (at least I hope so).

For (3) it would be nice to be able to perform the Lua code
	metaarray.__index = tm.TMMatrix_redefined_index
in such a way that I do not need to register the function 
"tm.TMMatrix_redefined_index". You said this is possible (I would agree 
with that), but I didn't figure out, how - Maybe, if I can solve (1) 
and (2), then I can simply change the function pointer on C level which 
is stored on the Lua stack?

Thanks Sebastian