Programming in C, C++ for Mac and Windows?

thomthom

I am extremely green to C/C++.
Currently doing some very basic tests in C++ with VS2010.

There is some number crunching that I'd like to do in C++. I did some comparisons and the Ruby version was 100 slower than the C++ version. So I am very interested in finding a way where I can create a set of number crushing methods in C++ which I can call from SU Ruby.

What I am looking at at the moment is:

Sending two arrays of 3D co-ordinates to the C++ method (3D points can be simple array of three floats)
Have the C++ method do its thing
return a new array back to ruby

Does it simplify much if the C++ never have to access any SU objects? Is it then possible to create a Windows and OSX solution? Would it be a DLL on Windows and ... what does OSX use...?

The SUExt link in TDB's post (http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=25201#p216233) leads to a wiki page...

tbd

see remus response
PellesC is my favourite - small, fast, free, doesn't install in all your machine, comes with all tools needed. it is C99 compliant

I went via VStudio only when I complied some SU SDK programs - too many VS dependent crap to convert it to another compiler

you need a compiler that creates Mac binaries and PellesC is not one of them
but on Mac you have IDE, compiler, debugging tools, Ruby by default so get one.

my suggestion:

get a Mac - you can install Windows in bootcamp or virtualized if you want it
start with C, it is easier to debug ruby libraries problems (there are a lot, see Adam's comments)
compile my SUExt example and play with it for start

tbd

link updated in my original post to http://github.com/TBD/OpenSUP/tree/master/SUExt/

thomthom

@unknownuser said:

link updated in my original post to http://github.com/TBD/OpenSUP/tree/master/SUExt/

cheers.
Can one download from one branch? I only managed to find a download for the whole lot. (not that it was a big download - just curious)
Also - is that extension one that integrates with SU such that you can access SU objects from C?

tbd

@thomthom said:

Can one download from one branch? I only managed to find a download for the whole lot. (not that it was a big download - just curious)

nope. only if I create the .zip myself and add them to Downloads tabs.

@thomthom said:

is that extension one that integrates with SU such that you can access SU objects from C?

is that extension that only extends Ruby with C code (so the title is a bit misleading for now). you can access SU objects via normal Ruby commands (rb_ functions)

thomthom

Would the code be simpler if it didn't integrate Ruby?
If it only passed data back and forth? Or is it required to integrate in order to share the various data types?

tbd

@thomthom said:

Would the code be simpler if it didn't integrate Ruby?

you dont integrate Ruby, just the needed headers for Ruby types. as you can see the output .so is small, 10kb, without any size optimizations.

@thomthom said:

If it only passed data back and forth? Or is it required to integrate in order to share the various data types?

you only pass data back and forth.

thomthom

And what about Classes defined by SketchUp? How does one handle them?

tbd

you can use rb_funcallX (see Ruby Interpretor Interface) to call methods from the classes or you can use array/hashes to pass data

thomthom

Say I got a collection of Point3d, Vector3d. Would it be best to convert those to arrays of basic numbers in Ruby and passing onto C? Or would it really not matter?


static VALUE test(VALUE vector)
{
  VALUE arr;
  arr = rb_funcall(vector, rb_intern("to_a"), 0)
}

This would leave me with arr being an Ruby Array representing the vector, right?
I see there are rb_each and rb_iterate - should one use ruby iterators to loop through Ruby Arrays in C? Or can one use regular C loops?

Are there further reading than this page: http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/html/ext_ruby.html

tbd

@thomthom said:

This would leave me with arr being an Ruby Array representing the vector, right?

right

@thomthom said:

I see there are rb_each and rb_iterate - should one use ruby iterators to loop through Ruby Arrays in C? Or can one use regular C loops?

definitely rb_ functions as you are manipulating an array of pointers (VALUE objects)

thomthom

I am confused again now. I got Pellets. And I did what the article said about generating a makefile. But I'm confused to how I compile it.
From what I understand, make is a UNIX command?

thomthom

Ok, getting close I think, - from the Pelles C Project options I added C:\Ruby\lib\ruby\1.8\i386-mswin32 to the includes path.

But now I get:
Building helloworld.obj. C:\Ruby\lib\ruby\1.8\i386-mswin32\config.h(2): fatal error #1014: #error: MSC version unmatch. *** Error code: 1 *** Done.

thomthom

Pelles crashed on me - and I swear I heard Homer Simpson's "doh!" as it crashed...

tbd

just double click on suext.ppj and it will open in PellesC IDE and then you can Project | Build and you will get a suext.so ready to use

thomthom

@unknownuser said:

just double click on suext.ppj and it will open in PellesC IDE and then you can Project | Build and you will get a suext.so ready to use

Tried that - but it complained about the project being in the wrong location. Thereafter I got the error I posted in previous post.

thomthom

When I google the error - all I find is people suggesting that one remove
#if _MSC_VER != 1200 #error MSC version unmatch #endif
from config.h.

I take it that you found a way around that?

thomthom

When I open the .ppj files in a text editor I see some minor differences.
What kind of project template do you use?

tbd

added suext6.ppj in SUExt dir on github. it should work now. I use PellesC 5 and something was changed in 6 that made that error.

thomthom

Thanks to TBD I manage to make my first Hello World SketchUp Ruby Extension running!
The man deserves a big cookie!