ABI

Every function must use the C ABI as a common interface.

Argument passing

Scalars

Scalars are bound 1-to-1

Type	Convention	C++ Type	Internal C type
Scalar	Copy	int	int
Ref { Scalar }	Address to the scalar	int &	int *
Ptr { Scalar }	Copy of the address	ptr <int>	int *
Ref { Ptr { Scalar } }	Address to copy of the pointer	ptr<int> &	int **

Classes

Classes are bound as class wrappers around a dynamically allocated internal object from the source

Type	Convention	C++	Internal C type
Class	Address of the internal object	const class &	void *
Ref { Class }	Address of the internal object	class &	void *
Ptr { Class }	Address of the internal object	ptr<class>	void *
Ref { Ptr { Class } }	Address to copy of the pointer to the internal object	ptr<class> &	void **

Strings and arrays

Strings and arrays have an inlined structure holding information about the array: address, bounds,…

Type	Convention	C++ Type	Internal C type
Array	Copy of the array data	const array<T> &	array_data
Ptr { Array }	Copy of the array data	ptr<array<T>>	array_data
Ref { Array }	Copy of the array data	array<T> &	array_data
Ref { Ptr { Array } }	Address to copy of the array data	ptr<class> &	array_data *

Pointers

Pointers to pointers are not supported.

References

References cannot be contained inside other type (Ptr { Ref {} }) as they are implementation defined.

Returning values

Scalars

Type	Convention	C++ Type	Internal C type
Scalar	Copy	int	int
Ref { Scalar }	Address to the scalar	int &	int *
Ptr { Scalar }	Copy of the address	ptr<int>	int *

Classes

Classes (and arrays) use a view type to return them as a reference in order to avoid returning an object whose lifetime depends on the stack. View types can be copied and hold no ownership on the pointer to the internal data. They do not free anything when they are destroyed.

Type	Convention	C++ Type	Internal C type
Class	Address of the internal object	class	void *
Ptr { Class }	Address of the internal object	ptr<class>	void *
Ref { Class }	Address of the internal object	view<class>	void *

Strings and arrays

Type	Convention	C++ Type	Internal C type
Array	Copy of the array data	const array<T> &	array_data
Ptr { Array }	Copy of the array data	ptr<array<T>>	array_data
Ref { Array }	Copy of the array data	view<array<T>>	array_data

Ref to Pointers

Cannot be returned.