From: John Fletcher <J.P.Fletcher@...>
Date: 2003-06-11T18:10:06+09:00
Subject: Re: Metakit [ first swipe ]



Bob X wrote:

> From Mr. Fletcher:
>
> ====
> I have made quite a lot of progress with binding Metakit, using
>
> SWIG (http://www.swig.org/). All that this needs, once you have
>
> SWIG, is to make a local copy of the Metakit header and run this
>
> SWIG file
>
> -----------------------
>
> /* File : mk4.i */
>
> %module mk4
>
> %{
>
> #include "mk4.h"
>
> %}
>
> /* First attempt at mk4 interface */
>
> %include "mk4.h"
>
> ----------------------
>
> Here is a translation of part of the Metakit demo. Notice
>
> (1) that all the Metakit classes have an initial capital letter. This is
>
> a requirement of Ruby and the translation is done by SWIG, which
>
> also gives a warning.
>
> (2) In this simple version some functionality is lost, in particular [ ]
>
> operations on the view. Some of this can be restored by adding
>
> things to the SWIG interface. I was concerned to get something
>
> operational.
>
> (3) I have only tried this on Linux using SWIG 1.3.16 and gcc 3.2.
>
> ----------------------------
>
> # test file for ruby interface for Metakit
>
> # load the package, which must have a lower case name.
>
> require 'mk4'
>
> include Mk4
>
> puts "A first test of Metakit running via Ruby"
>
> puts "John Fletcher June 2003 J.P.Fletcher@aston.ac.uk"
>
> puts "This is intended as a translation of demo.cpp"
>
> pName = C4_StringProp.new("name")
>
> pCountry = C4_StringProp.new("country")
>
> storage = C4_Storage.new("myfile.dat",1)
>
> vAddress = storage.GetAs("address[name:S,country:S]")
>
> row = C4_Row.new()
>
> # These do not translate directly
>
> #pName (row) = "John Williams"
>
> #pCountry (row) = "UK"
>
> #row = pName["John Williams"]
>
> #row.pName = "John Williams"
>
> # This has to be used instead.
>
> pName.Set(row,"John Williams")
>
> pCountry.Set(row,"UK")
>
> vAddress.Add(row)
>
> pName.Set(row,"Paco Pena")
>
> pCountry.Set(row,"Spain")
>
> vAddress.Add(row)
>
> # This has added two records.
>
> # Here is how to get data back again
>
> s1 = pName.Get(vAddress.GetAt(1))
>
> s2 = pCountry.Get(vAddress.GetAt(1))
>
> puts "The country of #{s1} is #{s2}"
>
> storage.Commit()
>
> -------------------
>
> Example output:
>
> A first test of Metakit running via Ruby
>
> John Fletcher June 2003 J.P.Fletcher@aston.ac.uk
>
> This is intended as a translation of demo.cpp
>
> The country of Paco Pena is Spain
>
> ====
>
> If anyone can help him I am sure he would appreciate it very much.  : )

One place where this is being discussed is on the Metakit wiki at

http://www.equi4.com/metakit/wiki.cgi/224

John