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    [Tutorial] SketchUp Ruby C Extension

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    • thomthomT Offline
      thomthom
      last edited by

      Huh... I removed all of that stuff completely, as http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hoanga/2006/12/14/getting-a-ruby-c-extension-to-compile-on-windows/ made no reference to it at all. Worked fine without. Guess it was required due to the way the Pelles C project was set up... ❓

      Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
      List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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      • thomthomT Offline
        thomthom
        last edited by

        Hey Chris, when we get around to writing up the step by step instructions, are you willing to be a guinea pig?

        Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
        List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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        • Chris FullmerC Offline
          Chris Fullmer
          last edited by

          Absolutely!

          Lately you've been tan, suspicious for the winter.
          All my Plugins I've written

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          • thomthomT Offline
            thomthom
            last edited by

            Great!

            I'm writing up a Basic example that shows a little more than Hello World.

            Then I start on making the step by step Wiki tutorial. I hope people with more know how can fill the in the "why" to much of it. And that people will try it and give feedback on what is unclear and what turns out not to work.

            Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
            List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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            • Dan RathbunD Offline
              Dan Rathbun
              last edited by

              @thomthom said:

              Though I have a suspicion I need to specify the path to where windows.h is located... Though I don't know where to do so...

              To do so via the IDE... from the menu Tools > Options...

              .. brings up the "Options" dialog.
              Choose "VC++ Directories" from the "Projects and Solutions" branch in the nav tree.
              You can see the dirs for catagories by selecting the cat from the "Show directories for:" dropdown control:

              Executable files:
              VCpp_opts_exe.png

              Include files:
              VCpp_opts_inc.png

              I'm not here much anymore.

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              • Dan RathbunD Offline
                Dan Rathbun
                last edited by

                Don't forget the "help" topic here:
                [Info] C/C++ Ruby extensions & SketchUp plugins
                .. and read Adan Nelson's posts (links on the above list.)

                I'm not here much anymore.

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                • Dan RathbunD Offline
                  Dan Rathbun
                  last edited by

                  from the info file "win32.readme" in the Ruby C source:
                  @unknownuser said:

                  You can NOT use a path name [that] contains any white space characters as
                  the ruby source directory, this restriction comes from the behavior of include directives of NMAKE.
                  (- you may call it a bug. -)

                  I'm not here much anymore.

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                  • tbdT Offline
                    tbd
                    last edited by

                    Thom: #pragma comment(lib, "*.lib") adds the libraries to the link phase (that hold imports and functions code)

                    it was a way to make sure that it will compile even if you create a new project and don't use in mine in PellesC.

                    SketchUp Ruby Consultant | Podium 1.x developer
                    http://plugins.ro

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                    • thomthomT Offline
                      thomthom
                      last edited by

                      Right'o! Gotcha. Been reading more up on C and GCC.

                      Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                      List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                      • T Offline
                        tomasz
                        last edited by

                        Thanks Thomas for the example.

                        I do not understand what is 'extconf.rb' for. I have compiled my extension under VC++ 2008 without running the file and without using any makefile... Is it bad ? 😕 💚

                        Author of [Thea Render for SketchUp](http://www.thearender.com/sketchup)

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                        • tbdT Offline
                          tbd
                          last edited by

                          extconf.rb - external configuration, it generates the makefile to create the extension. using makefile you can automate builds and tests.

                          SketchUp Ruby Consultant | Podium 1.x developer
                          http://plugins.ro

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                          • thomthomT Offline
                            thomthom
                            last edited by

                            extconf.rb generates a make file you can use with make under OSX and nmake under Windows.
                            http://ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/html/ext_ruby.html#UG

                            Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                            List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                            • thomthomT Offline
                              thomthom
                              last edited by

                              @unknownuser said:

                              I have compiled my extension under VC++ 2008

                              How big difference is making a Ruby Extension in C++ as oppose to C? ...seeing how Ruby is built in C... ❓

                              Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                              List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                              • T Offline
                                tomasz
                                last edited by

                                @unknownuser said:

                                extconf.rb - external configuration, it generates the makefile to create the extension. using makefile you can automate builds and tests.

                                Got it! In VC++ I have to configure it on my own.

                                @thomthom said:

                                How big difference is making a Ruby Extension in C++ as oppose to C? ...seeing how Ruby is built in C... ❓

                                You certainly would need to enclose declaration of the extension initialization with extern "C":

                                extern "C" {
                                void Init_SX_HelloWorld(); 
                                }
                                

                                I am not really an expert, but I guess all the rest would stay same.

                                Author of [Thea Render for SketchUp](http://www.thearender.com/sketchup)

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                                • thomthomT Offline
                                  thomthom
                                  last edited by

                                  Added a new example with basic functions. Will start on the tutorial text and images next.

                                  Btw, does anyone know how one can make extconf.rb and make/nmake output their files to a given folder? I'd like to make it so that each platform outputs its generated files to separate directories.

                                  Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                                  List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                                  • Chris FullmerC Offline
                                    Chris Fullmer
                                    last edited by

                                    What C++ compiler or development environment are you going to write this for so I can go download it and start poking around in it?

                                    Lately you've been tan, suspicious for the winter.
                                    All my Plugins I've written

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                                    • thomthomT Offline
                                      thomthom
                                      last edited by

                                      I am writing the extensions in C. But under windows I installed Visual C++ Express 2010 because it has the required Windows headers and nmake to compile it. I have some crude notes in the README.txt in the repo. Under OSX you need X Tools from the OSX DVD.

                                      Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                                      List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                                      • thomthomT Offline
                                        thomthom
                                        last edited by

                                        Note that I never use the Visual C++ IDE editor.

                                        Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                                        List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                                        • J Offline
                                          Jim
                                          last edited by

                                          Just wondering if there's any reason that MinGW instead of MSVC++ could not be used to compile c extensions. I assume the c extension is a libaray and doesn't require any Windows-specific GUI stuff - it's just a library of functions, right?

                                          Hi

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                                          • Dan RathbunD Offline
                                            Dan Rathbun
                                            last edited by

                                            @thomthom said:

                                            Btw, does anyone know how one can make extconf.rb and make/nmake output their files to a given folder? I'd like to make it so that each platform outputs its generated files to separate directories.

                                            Did you check the methods defined in "mkmf.rb" ?
                                            (You can also see "Appendix C. Functions Available in extconf.rb" in the "README.EXT" file.)

                                            .. also check our the "extmk.rb" file in the ext dir.

                                            I'm not here much anymore.

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