From: Michael Neumann <neumann@...>
Date: 2001-12-31T00:28:52+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:29727] Re: Communicating with C/C++ program

Hubert Hung-Hsien Chang wrote:
> If I am using Microsoft Window OS(95+) and want to communicate with 
> Ruby program, what is the 'easiest' way to do it? Certainly I could
> write a local host socket and ask them to talk to each other 
> but that is laborious ( for the C/C++ part). Previously ( some months ago?)
> I ask about calling Ruby from C and Phil said 'system()'. (Thanks Phil!)
> 
> What if I want not only to issue a command from C and ask Ruby to do something
> but also getting the result from Ruby? Is socket the only way to do it?

You could embed the Ruby interpreter into your C/C++ application, if
this is possible for you. Then you can use the full Ruby C-API to call 
Ruby methods etc.

Or if you start the Ruby application from you C-application or vice
versa you could use pipes instead of sockets, which is probably a little
bit easier to handle than sockets (but you may get problems with two-way
pipes, which is as far as I know not possible on Windows).

You could also use SOAP or XML-RPC, both available for C/C++ and Ruby. 
Then, either run a XML-RPC or SOAP service in C or Ruby, or simply 
communicate using files containing XML-RPC or SOAP messages, instead of 
running a TCP/IP server.
For me, this seams to be the easiest way to communicate between C and
Ruby. There is even a COM implementation (of course a C/C++ implementation 
exist, too) for XML-RPC and I guess for SOAP, too.
So it shouldn't be a problem to use it from within your C/C++ program.

Happy New Year!

Regards,

  Michael

-- 
Michael Neumann
merlin.zwo InfoDesign GmbH
http://www.merlin-zwo.de