Creating bindings for C libraries

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Revision as of 23:12, 20 September 2006 by Mattias2 (talk | contribs) (→‎Overview)
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Overview

This page describes how to create pascal bindings for C libraries. Normally Pascal can not use C libraries directly. You have to create for every C function, type, variable a pascal translation. There is the h2pas tool, which can automatically translate many common C things. And there is a GUI for Lazarus using h2pas and other tools to automate the creation, so that if the bindings needs to be updated you don't have to restart all over.

Work flow

  • Fetch the C header files you want to translate.
  • Create a working directory and give your bindings a name
  • Create a new h2pas project with the h2pas wizard.
  • add the .h files to the project
  • setup the h2pas options
  • run the wizard
  • fix errors by adding text tools and run the wizard again
  • when h2pas runs without errors add optional tools to beautify the output
  • publish your bindings on lazarus-ccr or Free Pascal

Install tools

The h2pas tool comes with every normal fpc installation.

Install the h2paswizard package in the Lazarus IDE. Go to "Components -> Configure installed packages ...", select from the right list the H2PasWizard package and click 'Install selection', then 'Save and rebuild IDE'. Restart the IDE and you get a new menu entry: Tools -> h2pas

C header files

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