• Mike Wynn (50/50) Jul 31 2003 Walter,
• Walter (11/61) Aug 01 2003 I initially considered rewriting the types to be more D like, but eventu...

"Mike Wynn" <mike.wynn l8night.co.uk> writes:

Walter,

Having had very little trouble getting the basic direct draw com interfaces
to work from D, I though I'd have a play at getting something a bit more
meaty working.

I noticed a few places with
structs like this in the MS idl files

typedef struct tagCUSTDATA {
    DWORD cCustData;            /* number of custom data items in rgCustData
*/
    [size_is(cCustData)] LPCUSTDATAITEM prgCustData;
                                /* array of custom data items */
} CUSTDATA, * LPCUSTDATA;

I've been changing it to
struct CUSTDATA {
    DWORD cCustData;            /* number of custom data items in rgCustData
*/
  LPCUSTDATAITEM prgCustData;
                                /* array of custom data items */
}
alias CUSTDATA * LPCUSTDATA;

BUT was not sure if (due to the size being just before the ptr) I could be a
little more "D"
struct CUSTDATA {
 CUSTDATAITEM[] prgCustData;
}

which started me thinking, on your search for a killer app, easier COM
programming might be a very good selling point for D, the small amount I've
done so far its a shallower learning curve than C or C++.
as I see it one improvement would be arrays
being able to define the above in some so
CUSTDATA cd;
cd.prgCustData = new CUSTDATAITEM[n];
works as expected.
and some solution to the usual C way of doing
typedef struct foo_s {
    int length; item[1] data
}FOO, * LPFOO;

LPFOO myarray = (LPFOO)malloc( sizeof(FOO) + len*sizeof(item));
myarray.length = len;

or even (getting OT) a variable syntax directive
{%idl%{
        ..... structs and interfaces in idl
}}
obviously dreaming here (VOT) but I'd want it to load idl.dll to parse and
generate the AST/DAG
so I could write
{%mine%{
        some strange syntax
}}
and have mine.dll process and generate the AST.

"Walter" <walter digitalmars.com> writes:

I initially considered rewriting the types to be more D like, but eventually
came to the conclusion it was  a mistake. One reason is it's just
impractical to try and duplicate Microsoft's COM documentation for all those
gazillion API functions, while changing the argument types.


"Mike Wynn" <mike.wynn l8night.co.uk> wrote in message
news:bgc4e9$1smu$1 digitaldaemon.com...
 Walter,

 Having had very little trouble getting the basic direct draw com

interfaces
 to work from D, I though I'd have a play at getting something a bit more
 meaty working.

 I noticed a few places with
 structs like this in the MS idl files

 typedef struct tagCUSTDATA {
     DWORD cCustData;            /* number of custom data items in

rgCustData
 */
     [size_is(cCustData)] LPCUSTDATAITEM prgCustData;
                                 /* array of custom data items */
 } CUSTDATA, * LPCUSTDATA;

 I've been changing it to
 struct CUSTDATA {
     DWORD cCustData;            /* number of custom data items in

rgCustData
 */
   LPCUSTDATAITEM prgCustData;
                                 /* array of custom data items */
 }
 alias CUSTDATA * LPCUSTDATA;

 BUT was not sure if (due to the size being just before the ptr) I could be

a
 little more "D"
 struct CUSTDATA {
  CUSTDATAITEM[] prgCustData;
 }

 which started me thinking, on your search for a killer app, easier COM
 programming might be a very good selling point for D, the small amount

I've
 done so far its a shallower learning curve than C or C++.
 as I see it one improvement would be arrays
 being able to define the above in some so
 CUSTDATA cd;
 cd.prgCustData = new CUSTDATAITEM[n];
 works as expected.
 and some solution to the usual C way of doing
 typedef struct foo_s {
     int length; item[1] data
 }FOO, * LPFOO;

 LPFOO myarray = (LPFOO)malloc( sizeof(FOO) + len*sizeof(item));
 myarray.length = len;

 or even (getting OT) a variable syntax directive
 {%idl%{
         ..... structs and interfaces in idl
 }}
 obviously dreaming here (VOT) but I'd want it to load idl.dll to parse and
 generate the AST/DAG
 so I could write
 {%mine%{
         some strange syntax
 }}
 and have mine.dll process and generate the AST.