I’d like to extend Ruby to directly interface with STAF
(http://staf.sf.net/), which I’m using to actually execute my tests,
and report on their status. STAF has a C API, and I think I
understand how to wrap it with Ruby, but I have a few questions on
that.
Just FYI, the only reference I’ve found so far is the online Pickaxe;
other pointers are welcome, so long as they are available online
(offline refs are welcome too, but I’d like to finish this today if
possible; it doesn’t seem to be THAT hard, and I’m getting excited
enough about Ruby that I want to start USING it, darn it!).
Also, I would like to define a few Ruby classes as well, to make
exception handling a little easier.
I’ve included a sort of psuedocode for how I’d write the whole thing
in ruby below. The issues I have are:
-
I’m reading the Pickaxe example, and it seems to match my situation
quit nicely-- STAF has a STAFHandle_t type that connects the client
with the server, and is passed as a parameter to all other calls.
So I want to wrap that up in a STAFHandle class (I’m naming the
class that way to match the C++ and Java interfaces; I’m going to
compose that into a STAFCommand class that operates like a File).So far, so good, but when I read the Pickaxe, it shows the CDPlayer
class defining an ‘initialize’ method (good, I get that) and a
’new’ Singleton method. What?!? I’m perfectly willing to concede
that I don’t understand Ruby’s concept of Singleton methods, but
why doesn’t the example just create the CDJukebox * and call
Data_Wrap_Struct() on it in the initialize() function? Why do it
that way? And, of course, do I need to mirror that structure in my
code? -
How do I structure my code so that I can keep STAFResult and
STAFException as pure Ruby classes, and just create and/or
raise them from the STAFHandle class? I saw all sorts of
examples of how to create Strings, Arrays, and Hashes, in C code,
but nothing about how to create some generic Ruby class in a C
method.Assuming I have STAFHandle.c, STAFResult.rb and STAFException.rb
in the same directory, how can I create a STAFResult object in
STAFHandle.c? Am I correct in assuming that I’d use the same
method to create a STAFException (or some appropriate subclass),
and then call ‘rb_raise(cExceptionInstance, “Appropriate text”)’?
Thanks for your help-- I had initially thought Ruby a solution in
search of a problem, but all of a sudden, everything’s starting to
look OO again, and it’s a happy feeling. Any help you can give in
getting me out of this quandry is greatly appreciated.
-=Eric
---- file ‘STAFResult.rb’ -----
module STAF
class STAFResult
def initialize(rc, result)
@rc = rc;
@result = result
attr_reader :rc, :result
end
end
----- end ‘STAFResult.rb’ -----
---- file ‘STAFHandle.rb’ -----
require ‘stafresult’
module STAF
class STAFHandle
def initialize(name)
@handle = # do stuff to initialize “@handle” with 'name’
end
def submit(machine, service, request)
retval = # do stuff to submit a 'request' to 'service' on 'machine'
# retval is a STAFResult
end
def STAFHandle.formatString(format, args...)
# format a string here
end
def STAFHandle.wrapData(string)
# quote the string in a way STAF likes
end
end
end
----- end ‘STAFHandle.rb’ -----
---- file ‘STAFException.rb’ ----
module STAF
class STAFException < Exception
def initalize(rc,text,name=‘STAFException’)
super(text)
@rc = rc
@name = name
end
def to_s
puts "Caught STAFException"
puts "Name : #{@name}"
puts "Location : #{backtrace()[0]}"
puts "Text : #{message()}"
puts "Error code: #{@rc}
end
end
class STAFOutOfBoundsException < Exception
def initialize(rc, text)
super(rc, text, “STAFOutOfBoundsException”);
end
end
class STAFInvalidObjectException < Exception
def initialize(rc, text)
super(rc, text, “STAFInvalidObjectException”);
end
end
class STAFInvalidParmException < Exception
def initialize(rc, text)
super(rc, text, “STAFInvalidParmException”);
end
end
class STAFBaseOSErrorException < Exception
def initialize(rc, text)
super(rc, text, “STAFBaseOSErrorException”);
end
end
end
----- end ‘STAFException.rb’ ----
···
–
Come to think of it, there are already a million monkeys on a million
typewriters, and Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare.
– Blair Houghton
