Using the Melange Interface Generator

The Melange interface generator provides a mechanism for providing access to native C code. It is modeled upon Apple Computer’s Creole, and shares Creole’s goals of automatically providing full support for a foreign interface based upon existing interface descriptions. It also, like Creole, provides mechanisms for explicitly adapting these interfaces to provide a greater match between C and Dylan data models.

Melange, however, differs from Creole in a number of significant ways. This document, therefore, provides a gentle introduction to Melange without attempting to build upon any existing descriptions of Creole.

• Introduction
• A Concrete Example
• Basic Use
• Importing Header Files
• Specifying Object Names
  • Mapping functions
  • Prefixes
  • Explicit Renaming
  • Anonymous Types
• Type Definitions
  • Implicit class definitions
  • Specifying class inheritance
• Translating Object Representations
  • Specifying low level transformations
  • Specifying high level transformations
• Other File Options
• Function Clauses
• Struct and Union Clauses
• Pointer Clauses
• Constant Clauses
• Variable Clauses
• Low level support facilities
• Known limitations
• Proposed modifications
  • Enumeration clauses
  • Inheritance of “map” and “equate” options
  • Re-merging of the “equate:” and “map:” options
• Historical Notes
  • Differences from Creole
• Copyright