[Tutorial] SketchUp Ruby C Extension

thomthom · 19 Jun 2012, 10:46

but for SU extensions having a couple of kB duplicated for the CRT is ok. also it makes the installing easier.

And from I gathered of the Wiki article, then the DLLs are statically linked they can link just the part of the library required. ??

Now I need to figure out how to statically link the CRT. Is it as simple as a compiler flag?

thomthom · 19 Jun 2012, 10:59

-MT instead of -MD seem to be the one...
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8463073/nmake-vc-2010-compile-without-msvcr100-dll-depends

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2kzt1wy3%28v=vs.80%29.aspx

thomthom · 19 Jun 2012, 11:35

thomthom · 19 Jun 2012, 12:06

On a real world project, Vertex Tools:

I can live with that. Now it "just works" on even the freshest of systems.

tbd · 19 Jun 2012, 13:05

@unknownuser said:

the DLLs are statically linked they can link just the part of the library required. ??

DLL = Dynamic Linked Library - so they cannot be statically linked (except embedding it in resource and dropping it on execute )

statically linked libraries (eg. CRT.lib) should add only the used routines to the final executable.

designingcrime · 14 Jul 2012, 01:49

I have been working on a plugin to upload and download files to a webserver through http requests. I found this project on the forums a while ago but It wasn't working.

GitHub - danawoodman/google-sketchup-file-downloader: [NOT MAINTAINED] A generic and reusable SketchUp Ruby C extension file downloading utility to be used within SketchUp plugins.

[NOT MAINTAINED] A generic and reusable SketchUp Ruby C extension file downloading utility to be used within SketchUp plugins. - danawoodman/google-sketchup-file-downloader

GitHub (github.com)

Now I have it working and the C Extension compiled fine in Os X.

I have been trying to figure out how to compile it in Windows now so that the plugin can be cross-platform. I started reading this thread but its kind of confusing for me. After following the instructions in this project (which I think are a product of this thread)

404 — Bitbucket

(bitbucket.org)

I can compile the example code here with extconf.rb and nmake. However compiling dana's extension is a bit more complicated because it links to libcurl.

there is a line in extconf.rb to check for curllib

Make sure the cURL library is installed.

have_library("curl")

its not

checking for main() in curl.lib... no
creating Makefile

So when using nmake I get this error

fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'curl/types.h': No such file or directory

I downloaded libcurl(curl-7.26.0-devel-mingw64, im on windows 7 and not sure which is the best)

So I can't figure out how to tell nmake to include the path, or where it looks for these files.

Does anyone have experience making ruby c extensions on windows and know how to include 3rd party libraries?

Any help would be appreciated.

thomthom · 14 Jul 2012, 10:42

I tried to compile Dana's library as well, but since the GiHub project doesn't include the CURL files it failed. And none of the packages I found at the CURL sitecontained the linked files. I asked Dana for which package he used, but it doesn't seem he found it again.

There's another thread around here that talks about Dana's repository.

Need to find out what CURL files are required.

ishboo · 14 Jul 2012, 16:39

Hey y'all,

I have not tried compiling on windows since I own a mac. On Mac libcurl is installed system wide so it is more straightforward setting it up.

One thing that may work is trying to install libcurl using Cygwin and then trying to compile it in Cygwin as well.

I have a coworker who runs windows, so I'll have him an I check it out next week and see what we can find out!

Dan Rathbun · 14 Jul 2012, 23:08

@thomthom said:

There's another thread around here that talks about Dana's repository.

This one?
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=38689&p=415237#p415237

designingcrime · 16 Jul 2012, 23:51

@thomthom said:

I tried to compile Dana's library as well, but since the GiHub project doesn't include the CURL files it failed. And none of the packages I found at the CURL sitecontained the linked files. I asked Dana for which package he used, but it doesn't seem he found it again.

There's another thread around here that talks about Dana's repository.

Need to find out what CURL files are required.

GitHub - danawoodman/google-sketchup-file-downloader: [NOT MAINTAINED] A generic and reusable SketchUp Ruby C extension file downloading utility to be used within SketchUp plugins.

[NOT MAINTAINED] A generic and reusable SketchUp Ruby C extension file downloading utility to be used within SketchUp plugins. - danawoodman/google-sketchup-file-downloader

GitHub (github.com)

I had no problem building Dana's library on OS X. Like he said curl ships with OS X so it should be on your system, I think you can check by typing which curl in the Terminal. For some reason if its not there I recommend just downloading from macports and making sure its location is in your System PATH.

Dana's library currently has some inconsistencies about the name of the extension and class its building which creates some problems, in some places it is called file_downloader and in others its called fileDownloader. Change all references to file_downloader to fileDownloader. and run ruby extonf.rb then make.(ignore cmake, because his CMakeList.txt file isn't setup to link libcurl) You will notice a line in extconf.rb

Make sure the cURL library is installed.

have_library("curl")

this basically makes sure that when you compile, curl can be found and linked. When running extconf.rb if you see a line like this
checking for curl... yes
this means you will be good to go when you run make

after building you can check and make sure libcurl is linked to your extension by typing in
otool -L fileDownloader.bundle

designingcrime · 16 Jul 2012, 23:55

@ishboo said:

Hey y'all,

I have not tried compiling on windows since I own a mac. On Mac libcurl is installed system wide so it is more straightforward setting it up.

One thing that may work is trying to install libcurl using Cygwin and then trying to compile it in Cygwin as well.

I have a coworker who runs windows, so I'll have him an I check it out next week and see what we can find out!

Dana, that would be great if you could ask around. As soon as I get this cross compiled, I will clean all the code up, package it nicely and send you a pull request. btw, I also added upload and basic authentication functionality to the utility as well. My head is kinda spinning around with all the different compilers on windows. I'll spend a day looking into Cygwin soon.

thomthom · 17 Jul 2012, 07:51

Did you look at the Hello World example I posted at BitBucket for compiling on Windows and OSX PPC/Intel?

designingcrime · 17 Jul 2012, 17:29

@thomthom said:

Did you look at the Hello World example I posted at BitBucket for compiling on Windows and OSX PPC/Intel?

Yeah I can get that to compile fine. Where run into problems is linking curllib (or in general linking a c library in wndows) which Is not an issue with your Hello World Example since it doesn't reference any 3rd party libraries

thomthom · 17 Jul 2012, 17:50

I'd be very interested in hearing how you get on with it and any description/mini-tutorial if you would care to do one. I'm very fresh to C so I'd love to learn this.

ishboo · 19 Jul 2012, 04:00

I talked to my colleague and we're gonna try to hack on it this Saturday at our weekly hackathon. Will update if we get around to it.

Dan Rathbun · 19 Jul 2012, 04:50

As as I mentioned before.. there are already Ruby bindings.

Curb looks like the most recent, it was last updated June 29, 2012:
http://rubygems.org/gems/curb

Dan Rathbun · 19 Jul 2012, 05:08

Stay away from Cygwin.

If you cannot use MSVS.. at least use MingGW.

Here's the link to download the source (which comes with precompiled binaries for curl.exe)
http://curl.haxx.se/gknw.net/7.26.0/dist-w32/curl-7.26.0-devel-mingw32.zip

OR.. if you just simply want the precompiled binaries (without source):
http://curl.haxx.se/gknw.net/7.26.0/dist-w32/curl-7.26.0-rtmp-ssh2-ssl-sspi-zlib-idn-static-bin-w32.zip
Has both pre-compiled curl.exe and libcurl.dll, as well as a few more dll files.

And how to build on various platforms:
http://curl.haxx.se/docs/install.html

ishboo · 19 Jul 2012, 06:20

Thanks for the links Dan

@dan rathbun said:

As as I mentioned before.. there are already Ruby bindings.

Curb looks like the most recent, it was last updated June 29, 2012:
http://rubygems.org/gems/curb

I would assume this would mean the end user would need to install the gem for it to work?

thomthom · 19 Jul 2012, 08:53

@ishboo said:

I talked to my colleague and we're gonna try to hack on it this Saturday at our weekly hackathon. Will update if we get around to it.

thomthom · 19 Jul 2012, 08:54

@dan rathbun said:

Stay away from Cygwin.

If you cannot use MSVS.. at least use MingGW.

Why is this?