Re: [Vala] Problem while creating a vapi file for a typedef'd pointer.

[Abderrahim Kitouni <a kitouni gmail com>]

Hi,

Geoffrey Blackman wrote:
> Hi,
> I'm attempting to create a vapi file for Verilog VPI and have run into a
> problem with a opaque pointer type.
> Different implementations of VPI define the type vpiHandle differently. Two
> examples are
>
> typedef void *vpiHandle;
I don't know if this is bindable in vala (i.e. you may need to use
> typedef struct __vpiHandle *vpiHandle;
but this should be something like
[Compact]
[CCode (cname="struct __vpiHandle"]
public class Handle {...}

> I therefor need to define a type in my vapi file which will map to vpiHandle
> and behave like a pointer.

I'd like to explain some things here.
>     [SimpleType]
SimpleType means it should be passed by value, it definietly won't 
behave like a pointer.
> [...]
> Note that the '?' indicating that the iterate method can return null has
> caused argv to have type 'vpiHandle*' rather than the vpiHandle returned by
for a struct, '?' means it's boxed (that's the only way for it to be null).
> vpi_iterate.
> If I remove the nullable marker I would get the correct type for argv,
> however I cannot now test it for null.
because a struct won't behave like a pointer.


Your best bet is a compact class, but this won't work in the void* case.

HTH,
Abderrahim