ExtUtils::Constant::Base - base class for ExtUtils::Constant objects
- require ExtUtils::Constant::Base;
- @ISA = 'ExtUtils::Constant::Base';
ExtUtils::Constant::Base provides a base implementation of methods to generate C code to give fast constant value lookup by named string. Currently it's mostly used ExtUtils::Constant::XS, which generates the lookup code for the constant() subroutine found in many XS modules.
ExtUtils::Constant::Base exports no subroutines. The following methods are available
A method returning a scalar containing definitions needed, typically for a C header file.
A method to return a suitable C if
statement to check whether name
is equal to the C variable name
. If checked_at is defined, then it
is used to avoid memEQ
for short names, or to generate a comment to
highlight the position of the character in the switch
statement.
If i<checked_at> is a reference to a scalar, then instead it gives the characters pre-checked at the beginning, (and the number of chars by which the C variable name has been advanced. These need to be chopped from the front of name).
An internal function to generate the embedded perl code that will regenerate
the constant subroutines. default_type, types and ITEMs are the
same as for C_constant. indent is treated as number of spaces to indent
by. If declare_types
is true a $types
is always declared in the perl
code generated, if defined and false never declared, and if undefined $types
is only declared if the values in types as passed in cannot be inferred from
default_types and the ITEMs.
A method to return a suitable assignment clause. If type is aggregate (eg PVN expects both pointer and length) then there should be multiple VALUEs for the components. pre and post if defined give snippets of C code to proceed and follow the assignment. pre will be at the start of a block, so variables may be defined in it.
A method to return a suitable #ifdef
clause. ITEM is a hashref
(as passed to C_constant
and match_clause
. indent is the number
of spaces to indent, defaulting to 6.
An internal method to generate a suitable switch
clause, called by
C_constant
ITEMs are in the hash ref format as given in the description
of C_constant
, and must all have the names of the same length, given by
NAMELEN. ITEMHASH is a reference to a hash, keyed by name, values being
the hashrefs in the ITEM list. (No parameters are modified, and there can
be keys in the ITEMHASH that are not in the list of ITEMs without
causing problems - the hash is passed in to save generating it afresh for
each call).
An "internal" method, subject to change, currently called to allow an
overriding class to cache information that will then be passed into all
the *param*
calls. (Yes, having to read the source to make sense of this is
considered a known bug). WHAT is be a hashref of types the constant
function will return. In ExtUtils::Constant::XS this method is used to
returns a hashref keyed IV NV PV SV to show which combination of pointers will
be needed in the C argument list generated by
C_constant_other_params_definition and C_constant_other_params
An internal function to generate the embedded perl code that will regenerate the constant subroutines. Parameters are the same as for C_constant.
Currently the base class does nothing and returns an empty string.
A function that returns a list of C subroutine definitions that return the value and type of constants when passed the name by the XS wrapper. ITEM... gives a list of constant names. Each can either be a string, which is taken as a C macro name, or a reference to a hash with the following keys
The name of the constant, as seen by the perl code.
The type of the constant (IV, NV etc)
A C expression for the value of the constant, or a list of C expressions if the type is aggregate. This defaults to the name if not given.
The C pre-processor macro to use in the #ifdef
. This defaults to the
name, and is mainly used if value is an enum
. If a reference an
array is passed then the first element is used in place of the #ifdef
line, and the second element in place of the #endif
. This allows
pre-processor constructions such as
- #if defined (foo)
- #if !defined (bar)
- ...
- #endif
- #endif
to be used to determine if a constant is to be defined.
A "macro" 1 signals that the constant is always defined, so the #if
/#endif
test is omitted.
Default value to use (instead of croak
ing with "your vendor has not
defined...") to return if the macro isn't defined. Specify a reference to
an array with type followed by value(s).
C code to use before the assignment of the value of the constant. This allows
you to use temporary variables to extract a value from part of a struct
and return this as value. This C code is places at the start of a block,
so you can declare variables in it.
C code to place between the assignment of value (to a temporary) and the return from the function. This allows you to clear up anything in pre. Rarely needed.
Equivalents of pre and post for the default value.
Generated internally. Is zero or undefined if name is 7 bit ASCII, "no" if the name is 8 bit (and so should only match if SvUTF8() is false), "yes" if the name is utf8 encoded.
The internals automatically clone any name with characters 128-255 but none 256+ (ie one that could be either in bytes or utf8) into a second entry which is utf8 encoded.
Optional sorting weight for names, to determine the order of linear testing when multiple names fall in the same case of a switch clause. Higher comes earlier, undefined defaults to zero.
In the argument hashref, package is the name of the package, and is only
used in comments inside the generated C code. subname defaults to
constant
if undefined.
default_type is the type returned by ITEM
s that don't specify their
type. It defaults to the value of default_type()
. types should be given
either as a comma separated list of types that the C subroutine subname
will generate or as a reference to a hash. default_type will be added to
the list if not present, as will any types given in the list of ITEMs. The
resultant list should be the same list of types that XS_constant
is
given. [Otherwise XS_constant
and C_constant
may differ in the number of
parameters to the constant function. indent is currently unused and
ignored. In future it may be used to pass in information used to change the C
indentation style used.] The best way to maintain consistency is to pass in a
hash reference and let this function update it.
breakout governs when child functions of subname are generated. If there
are breakout or more ITEMs with the same length of name, then the code
to switch between them is placed into a function named subname_len, for
example constant_5
for names 5 characters long. The default breakout is
3. A single ITEM
is always inlined.
Not everything is documented yet.
Probably others.
Nicholas Clark <nick@ccl4.org> based on the code in h2xs
by Larry Wall and
others