ralxyz / extern-c

Mix C with other programming languages

extern "C"

This project demonstrates how to mix C with other programming languages. It aims to create a Rosetta Stone of the procedure shown in the following pseudocode:

// use programming language x

func main() {
    caller_language := "x-language";
    caller_stack := generate_random_number();
    println("[%04d] start of x-language main procedure", caller_stack);

    y_language_procedure(caller_language, caller_stack);

    println("[{%04d}] end of x-language main procedure", caller_stack);
}

! use programming language y

FUNCTION y_language_procedure(caller_language, caller_stack)
    callee_stack = generate_random_number()
    PRINT "[%04d] start of a y-language procedure, called by [%04d], %s", callee_stack, caller_language, caller_stack

    PRINT "[%04d] start of a y-language procedure", callee_stack
END FUNCTION y_language_procedure

As shown above, the main function written in x language calls a function written in y language. The output of the whole procedure looks like this:

[4199] start of x-language main procedure
[8549] start of a y-language procedure, called by x-language [4199]
[8549] end of a y-language procedure
[4199] end of x-language main procedure

The cross-language API, as mentioned above, needs to receive a integer and a string, in order to show their basic ability of mix programming.

All the callee procedures will be archived into static libraries using their own toolchain. For example, to build a C static library, instead of using cargo, we use gcc.

Currently implemented:

Caller	Callee
C	golang
C	rust
golang	C
rust	C

Will implement:

• C++

Usage

Fisrtly, change directory to one of the x-call-y. If you want to build all x-call-ys, just stay in the root directory.

To build the project:

make

To clean the build targets:

make clean