Re: Use FFI to hook into existing C application?
Posted by
Derek O'Connell-3 on
Aug 17, 2010; 8:21am
URL: https://forum.world.st/Use-FFI-to-hook-into-existing-C-application-tp2327638p2327929.html
On 17/08/10 01:34, Casey Ransberger wrote:
> I have a C app that I'd like to port to Squeak. I had this crazy idea that I
> wanted to incrementally replace parts of it bit by bit with Smalltalk, and
> was entertained by how that seemed roughly impossible. The first thought
> that crossed my mind was to try to bolt some sort of C-based RPC onto it,
> and use that as a way to get it to talk to Squeak. Then I thought about FFI,
> but what I'm reading about that talks specifically about libraries.
>
> Here's what I'm wondering:
>
> Would it be insanely painful to make parts of the app into libraries that
> could get called via FFI? Would it just make more sense to do a scratch
> implementation? Has anyone ever done something like this before?
>
> It's a crazy idea:)
>
It's difficult to comment without some details of your app. How
big/complicated is it? Does it have a UI? Does it call other libs? Does
it use threading or do a lot of IO? Is speed a factor? What platform?
If the app is not so big, is already well structured and has no special
requirements then you could split it into libs as a first step and then
later migrate C-code to Smalltalk in manageable chunks. Alternatively
jump in with both feet and re-implement as much as possible in Squeak :-)
-D