Call Library Function - Auto Define

[Norm Kirchner]

This will be VERY useful if I/we can do this.

I am heading down the road of a utility that will automatically define a "Call Library Function Node" based upon an available header file, thus simplifying a very time consuming task.

Is anyone up the road ahead :question:

I'll keep my progress updated here and I am welcome to any suggestions.

Norm Kirchner

~,~

[PJM_labview]

Norm,

Read Michael Ashe posting in this thread. He has apparently start working on this.

PJM

[Norm Kirchner]

Read Michael Ashe posting in this thread. He has apparently start working on this.

This still doesnt' give me anything.

Forget the boundries.

This is needed. I have a number of DLL drivers with header files. I now need to create wrappers

I can't imagine that this is the only situation.

Great ideas can be accomplished through teamwork. All that post said was that it was too hard and wasn't worth NI's time.

Let's make it worth OUR time!! Vive la communite

[PJM_labview]

This still doesnt' give me anything.

Forget the boundries.

This is needed. I have a number of DLL drivers with header files. I now need to create wrappers

I can't imagine that this is the only situation.

Great ideas can be accomplished through teamwork. All that post said was that it was too hard and wasn't worth NI's time.

Let's make it worth OUR time!! Vive la communite

Norm,

Here is what Michael Ashe says here:

"I used this to hack together a little utility that writes the function prototype and parameters to a Call Library Node. The next step is to add a parser for a c/cpp.h file and make a utility that will auto generate wrapper VIs for DLLs, something I have wanted for years. I'll post when I get it finished."

It seem to me he already has some stuff done, you might want to try to get in touch with him directly.

I, personally, did not write anything that can help you.

PJM

[Norm Kirchner]

Got a few more min this time to read the thread and realized that it had more information than reailzed.

BUT. This thread would be better suited for discussions on the development of the scripter.

I'm installing CVI now to check out the utils that the thread mentioned, but I still think that we should be able to do this for all of us w/out the CVI license.

[Mike Ashe]

Norm,

I agree, this is needed, has been needed for a while. I first thought about this while trying to make wrappers for an astronomy file format read/write library. The astronomy crowd already had a very good library with about 200 functions in it, DLL or shared lib. We ended up uisng CVI to make the driver tree file, then used that to get LabVIEW to make us the wrappers, but even then it was obvious we all needed a driver-wrapper utility. The problem has been development time. If you have just a list of the functions:

void myfunc1(int arg1, string arg2........);

int myfunc2(arglist....);

then the problem isn't so bad. But most of the time there is a lot more stuff in the header files and making a parser that filters out all the crap and ignores it turned into a pain and I had to stop. We need someone who knows perl or something similar to write up a Parser frontend, then we do the rest in LabVIEW.

I'll see if I can't find the code I'd hacked together and dust it off. I'm very busy trying to finish a couple of proposals and find new consuting/integration work right now, so that has to take precedence. Give me a little while.

[Norm Kirchner]

Much like Michael I have started on a parser with the attempt to grab the simple functions from the rest of the gook in a header file.

I think even w/ out a Perl coder available, if we start small w/ the assumption of having a concise list of well formatted function calls, we can create somethign that will save ooodles of time.

I have a prototype already together that can even handle the creation of clusters from structures and enums from enums.

I'll be posting it after the new year when I get my PC back.

Keep on rockin' in the free world

~,~ The Captain