From: Mohit Sindhwani <mo_mail@...>
Date: 2008-04-24T20:06:47+09:00
Subject: Calling C functions from Embedded Ruby Interpreter

Hi Everyone,

I know the subject line is quite a mouthful!  Sorry about that.

I've managed to embed a Ruby interpreter into my application and I can 
call Ruby functions from the code in my application.  It works fine and 
returns results to me as expected.  I can also ask it to run a script 
for me.

Now, I'd like to get it to do some automation for me.  My project starts 
up, loads a few things, sets a few properties, etc.  I'd like to be able 
to automate this using the embedded interpreter.  I expect the code in 
the script may be as simple as:
set_default_color(0x00ff0000)
set_screen_size(800,600)
...and so on.

Now, as I understand it, in my application, I need to these C functions 
in it:
VALUE set_default_color (VALUE color)
VALUE set_screen_size (VALUE w, VALUE h)
... and so on.

I just don't know what to do next!  I'm not even sure what I should 
search for - should I like at how to create an extension?  Does that 
mean that I need to get into the mkmf, etc. and compile some things for 
it to work (I shudder because my primary environment is Borland C++ 
Builder/ Turbo C++ and I had enough worries getting the interpreter to 
be compiled in).

To use the script from the embedded interpreter, can I just ask it to 
run the script?

I'm sorry if some of the questions/ explanations are a bit vague.  Any 
help/ direction is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Mohit.