Ruby C++ extension crashes SketchUp

breton_nerd

Hi everyone, I have a very weird problem to solve. I've programmed a C++ extension for a sketchup project. What I do :
-I compile it with extconf & make -> it works
-I test the source file on ruby console with irb and other commands -> it works
-I put require 'mytest' and include CallModule at the beginning of my ruby script and I put the source file into the plugin directory with the ruby script.
-I launch SketchUp and it crashes instantly.

I made a lot of test and I'm sure SketchUp crashes because of my source file .so resulting of the compilation of my cpp file "mytest.cpp". I tried to remove the line "require 'my test" at the beginning of my ruby script and sure it crashes because of source file I put in the plugin directory. Moreover I tried to make a C version of my extension and I get the same problem.

Hope you can help me because I don't know what can I do. I'm on Windows XP Pro.

thomthom

I had problems under OSX:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=28673&start=0
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=33649

Not sure if it's at all related, as it was working fine under Windows.
(Mind you, I'm very green at C Extensions - I only managed to compile mine because of help from TBD and AdamB.)

breton_nerd

Thanks for the quick reply. the problem is that i'm running it on Windows. The file you got after compiling the C extension is "Bundle" and mine a source, I don't know if there is a difference for SketchUp.
I saw your topic but I don't understand how you solved your problem?

thomthom

@breton_nerd said:

I saw your topic but I don't understand how you solved your problem?

By doing the modification AdamB suggested: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=28673&start=0#p249370

@breton_nerd said:

The file you got after compiling the C extension is "Bundle" and mine a source, I don't know if there is a difference for SketchUp.

I have no idea, sorry.

todd burch

Can you post a small, failing test case?

Dan Rathbun

@breton_nerd said:

Hi everyone, I have a very weird problem to solve. I've programmed a C++ extension for a sketchup project. What I do :
-I compile it with extconf & make -> it works
-I test the source file on ruby console with irb and other commands -> it works

What Ruby version did you compile against ??

Sketchup cannot run anything in the v1.9.x Ruby trunk.

You need to compile with Ruby v1.8.6 PatchLevel 287 or higher (which is the interpreter distro'd with Sketchup 8.x)

@breton_nerd said:

I made a lot of test and I'm sure SketchUp crashes because of my source file .so resulting of the compilation of my cpp file "mytest.cpp". I tried to remove the line "require 'my test'" at the beginning of my ruby script...

Do not put spaces in filenames, perhaps especially source object files.
Always have your source object file all downcased characters. (Eliminates problems with the require method.)

The name of the C-side Init function must contain the exact so filename, with the same case: ie: Init_mytest

Speed up the require() method's file search by specifying the .so file extension. (It will skip seaching for mytest.rb and mytest.rbw, mytest.dll, etc.)

@breton_nerd said:

... and sure it crashes because of source file I put in the plugin directory.

Do not put .so files in the Plugins folder, put them in your extension subfolder.

plugins/breton_nerd/mytest/mytest.so* Users want control of what gets loaded, see the [SketchupExtension](http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/sketchupextension.html) class. Normally you have an extension registration script, plugins/mytest_ext.rb, in the plugins folder, and your plugin script is in a subfolder. In this example: plugins/breton_nerd/mytest/mytest_loader.rb

@breton_nerd said:

-I put require 'mytest' and include CallModule at the beginning of my ruby script and I put the source file into the plugin directory with the ruby script.
-I launch SketchUp and it crashes instantly.

You should be calling:

require "breton_nerd/mytest/mytest.so"

Do not include (ie, Mix-In,) anything into Object. ONLY mixin modules into YOUR own modules or YOUR own custom classes, or by using the extend() method to mix into an existing instance object. When you use the include() method in code that is not wrapped in a module (or class) definition, you are trying to mix a module into Object.
Besides a coder's (YOUR,) TopLevel module, ONLY Ruby Base Classes and Modules should be defined at the top level, which is actually main, a special instance of class Object.

Your example above did not show that you are wrapping code within your toplevel module.

module BretonNerd
  module MyTest
    require( "breton_nerd/mytest/mytest.so" )
    include( Mixin;;CallModule )
    #
    # do stuff here with mixed in methods etc.
    #
  end
end

You can use a quick and dirty namespace called Mixin, to wrap "mixin modules" so they are separate from the Ruby Standard modules. (see this post where I show an example.)

But if you will be creating a special library of "mixin modules", to use with more than one of your plugins, then you should define your own Mixin namespace within your toplevel namespace module.

module BretonNerd
  module Mixin
    # define mixin module CallModule here
    # from within the C/C++ source code.
  end
end

P.S. - Your toplevel namespace module can be whatever unique (non-trademarked, not yet used by another plugin developer,) name you wish. I just used your SCF nickname as an example.

Dan Rathbun

Just to be clear ...

It occurs to me that, if you are coming to Ruby from C or Python, you may be confused as to the use of the Ruby method include().

You do not need to "include" your compiled C-side Ruby module to use it in Ruby. (That's what the Ruby methods require() and load() do.)

Just require() it's so file, and if the return value is true, then your new module has been loaded, and it's ready to use. Such as calling it's methods, or accessing it's constants.

Example, lets say you define a nested module in C/C++ named BretonNerd::CallModule, and compile it to mytest.so

<span class="syntaxdefault">if require</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">(</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> </span><span class="syntaxstring">"breton_nerd/mytest/mytest.so"</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">)<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  BretonNerd</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">;;</span><span class="syntaxdefault">CallModule</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">start_my_plugin</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">()<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  BretonNerd</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">;;</span><span class="syntaxdefault">CallModule</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">about_dialog</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">()<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  puts</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">(</span><span class="syntaxstring">"My Test Module version is; #{BretonNerd;;CallModule;;VERSION}"</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">)<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">end</span>

In Ruby, the include() and extend() methods, are for "mixing-in" features from a specially written module (called a "Mix-In" module,) into the current module or class, in special (and often confusing,) ways.

Ruby does not have a "paste" method (although I wish it did,) that would just simply paste the contents of a module into the current namespace from where it was called. (I am forced to write a method of my own to do that.)

exvion

breton_nerd, i use this version of ruby http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/47082/ruby186-27_rc2.exe for compile C++ extension.
And I comment lines
//#if _MSC_VER != 1200
//#error MSC version unmatch
//#endif
in c:\Ruby186\lib\ruby\1.8\i386-mswin32\config.h
I had failed with other versions. What version of ruby you use?

Dan Rathbun

@exvion said:

breton_nerd, i use this version of ruby http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/47082/ruby186-27_rc2.exe for compile C++ extension.
And I comment lines
//#if _MSC_VER != 1200
//#error MSC version unmatch
//#endif
in c:\Ruby186\lib\ruby\1.8\i386-mswin32\config.h
I had failed with other versions. What version of ruby you use?

Yes that is Ruby version 1.8.6-p287, the version of the interpreter that Google distro'd with Sketchup 8.x;
(The 27_rc2 refers to the One-Click Ruby Installer release package.)
Here is the Release Notes page link.