From: Ben Giddings <ben@...>
Date: 2003-07-25T05:36:41+09:00
Subject: SWIG and char * parameters

I've just started to try to use SWIG to wrap a bunch of C functions so I can 
call them from Ruby.  If I can get this working it will make some testing 
much easier, but I've come across a strange problem.  Functions which take 
char pointer arguments seem to pass in NULL.

#####

void sayHelloTo(char *name) {
  if (NULL == name) {
    printf("Hello %s\n", name);
  }
  else {
    printf("Gimme a name!\n");
  }
}

#####

ben% irb
irb(main):001:0> require 'sample'
=> true
irb(main):002:0> Sample.sayHello
Hello World
=> nil
irb(main):003:0> Sample.sayHelloTo
ArgumentError: wrong # of arguments(0 for 1)
        from (irb):3:in `sayHelloTo'
        from (irb):3
irb(main):004:0> Sample.sayHelloTo("Bob")
Gimme a name!
=> nil

I've looked over the documentation on the generic and Ruby-specific parts of 
the SWIG site and haven't found anything talking about this issue.  Any tips, 
pointers, URLs or comments?