Perl InlineC not working

The problem is that you cannot pass any type of variable via Inline::C.
The types you can pass are defined in /lib/ExtUtils/typemap somewhere under your Perl dir.
long * is not one of these types (although char *, is!)

You'll have to map it yourself.
Than, you'll have to deal with the porblem that (at least) some fo the perl does deal well with in/out parameters.

The simplest way may be to use the variable as input only, define a copy inside it, and return the changed value in the return path.

Thanks for the quick reply,

 I have modified the test script taking into account your advice. Looking in /lib/ExtUtils/typemap showed me the different types.

 You can see that I use atol() to convert the char* into a long.

 I think you are definitely on the right track here. Do you see a reason why the following does not work? How would you write it? I'm not sure I understand the concept of remapping...

 Thanks for the help!


#### BEGIN TEST SCRIPT
use Inline C;

greet('Ingy');
greet(42);
$memory_address=136052768;
GetMem($memory_address);
__END__    
__C__
void greet(char* name) {
    printf("Hello %s!\n", name);
}
void GetMem(char* memory_address){
    printf("Hello char: %s!\n", memory_address);
    long lp;
    lp = atol(memory_address);
    printf("Hello long: %l!\n", lp);
}    
#### END TEST SCRIPT

#### OUTPUT LOG
C:\OCR\Dev>perl testInlineC.pl

Microsoft (R) Program Maintenance Utility   Version 1.50
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corp 1988-94. All rights reserved.

        C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe C:\Perl\lib\ExtUtils/xsubpp  -typemap C:\Perl\lib\ExtUtils\typemap  testInlineC_pl_68d
6.xs > testInlineC_pl_68d6.xsc && C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -MExtUtils::Command -e mv testInlineC_pl_68d6.xsc testInline
C_pl_68d6.c
        cl -c  -IC:/OCR/Dev  -nologo -Gf -W3 -MD -Zi -DNDEBUG -O1 -DWIN32 -D_CONSOLE -DNO_STRICT -DHAVE_DES_FCRYPT
-DNO_HASH_SEED -DPERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT -DPERL_IMPLICIT_SYS -DUSE_PERLIO -DPERL_MSVCRT_READFIX -MD -Zi -DNDEBUG -O1
   -DVERSION=\"0.00\"  -DXS_VERSION=\"0.00\"  "-IC:\Perl\lib\CORE"   testInlineC_pl_68d6.c
testInlineC_pl_68d6.c
testInlineC_pl_68d6.xs(10) : error C2143: syntax error : missing ';' before 'type'
testInlineC_pl_68d6.xs(11) : error C2065: 'lp' : undeclared identifier
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe' : return code '0x2'
Stop.

A problem was encountered while attempting to compile and install your Inline
C code. The command that failed was:
  nmake > out.make 2>&1

The build directory was:
C:\OCR\Dev\_Inline\build\testInlineC_pl_68d6

To debug the problem, cd to the build directory, and inspect the output files.

 at testInlineC.pl line 0
INIT failed--call queue aborted.
#### END LOG

Sorry about the remark in the last code:

    long lp; // < perfectly legal in C90
    printf("Hello char: %s!\n", memory_address);
    lp = atol(memory_address);
    printf("Hello long: %l!\n", lp);

roee_f,

  thanks a bunch! that gets me through compilation no problem. However, can you think of a reason why atol() wouldn't work? In fact, I cannot even assign a value to the 'long' type.

#### SAMPLE CODE
print "ptrData prior to muck() is $ptrData\n";
muck("$ptrData");
use Inline C;
__END__
__C__
void muck(SV* sv_name) {
    long lp;
    lp=100;
    printf("Hello string %s!\n", SvPV(sv_name, PL_na));
    //lp = atol(SvPV(sv_name, PL_na));
   
    printf("Hello long: %l!\n", lp);
}
#### END SAMPLE


#### OUTPUT
ptrData prior to muck() is 149225504
Hello string 149225504!
Hello long: !
#### END OUTPUT


I cannot print out a long value at all (let alone with atol()!).  In the above sample I commented out the atol() subroutine in favor of direct assignment of the 'long' lp. It won't even print!

However, the following works just fine:

#### SAMPLE CODE
print "ptrData prior to muck() is $ptrData\n";
muck("$ptrData");
use Inline C;
__END__
__C__
void muck(SV* sv_name) {
    int lp;
    lp=100;
    printf("Hello string %s!\n", SvPV(sv_name, PL_na));
    //lp = atol(SvPV(sv_name, PL_na));
   
    printf("Hello int: %i!\n", lp);
}
#### END SAMPLE

#### OUTPUT
ptrData prior to muck() is 149225504
Hello string 149225504!
Hello int: 100!
#### END OUTPUT



strange, huh? The 'long' type is supported by inline C (/lib/ExtUtils/typedef). Otherwise it wouldn't compile!

Any thoughts on that?


I appreciate the help!

worked good. Didnt think of using %ld

Why does the following not print correctly?



#### SAMPLE
print "ptrData prior to muck() is $ptrData\n";
muck("$ptrData");
use Inline C;
__END__
__C__
void muck(SV* sv_name) {
    long lp;
    unsigned char *pointer;
    printf("Hello string %s!\n", SvPV(sv_name, PL_na));
    lp = atol(SvPV(sv_name, PL_na));
    printf("Hello long: %ld!\n", lp);
    // To get the content of a byte at a specified adress, use:
    *pointer = (unsigned char*)lp;
    printf("Adress %u, content %c\n",pointer, *pointer);
    //The first line performes a type cast from long (return value of ImageDataPtr) to unsigned char*. After that it will not print correctly.
}
#### END SAMPLE


#### OUTPUT
C:\OCR\Dev>perl testActiveX.pl
ptrData: 140574752
value using peek(): 325674260
hex value using peek(): 13696514
640, 480
elapsed time is 2.038976 s
ptrData prior to muck() is 140574752
Hello string 140574752!
Hello long: 140574752!
Adress 27800872, content
#### END OUTPUT


Note that all of this headache stems from the fact the lib/extutils/typedef does not specify a long *.

Thanks for the advice!

You both have answered this dead on. This last step and I should be done with Inline C .

how did u know to use %ld?

   pointer = (unsigned char*)lp;

see
man printf

           an optional  l
           (ell) specifying that a following  d, i, o, u,  x,  or
           X  conversion character applies to a type long int  or
           unsigned long  int  argument;  an  optional   l  (ell)
           specifying  that  a  following  n conversion character
           applies to a pointer to a type long int  argument;  an


           conversion  character  applies to a pointer to a  long
           long argument; or an optional L specifying that a fol-
           lowing  e,  E, f, g, or G conversion character applies
           to a type long double argument. If an h, l, ll,  or  L
           appears  with  any  other  conversion  character,  the
           behavior is undefined.


That is really obscure!

The following is a working solution. Thanks ozo and roee_f!

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

#--------------------------------
# start of profiler:
# start section
use Time::HiRes qw( usleep ualarm gettimeofday tv_interval );
$t0 = [gettimeofday];
# end section
#--------------------------------


#--------------------------------
# instance an imaging control using Win32::OLE:
# start section:
use Win32::OLE;
$imaging = Win32::OLE->new('IC.ICImagingControl') or die "oops\n";
# end section
#--------------------------------


#--------------------------------
# Use the Dialog to get camera settings:
# start section
#       If we want to change settings we need to use the dialog and and save
#       the state so we can load from file.
#$imaging->ShowDeviceSettingsDialog();
#$imaging->SaveDeviceStateToFile("c:\\ocr\\device_state.xml");
# end section
#--------------------------------

#---------------------------------
# This section is used by all following sections.
# start section
$imaging->LoadDeviceStateFromFile("c:\\ocr\\device_state.xml",1);
$imaging->MemorySnapImage();
$imaging->MemorySaveImage("c:\\ocr\\test1.bmp");
$buffer = $imaging->ImageBuffers->Item(1);
# end section
#---------------------------------


#-------------------------------------------
# This section tries to use ImageDataPtr() to access image data.
# Hopefully it will not interfere with saving the image.
# start section
$t3 = [gettimeofday];
$ptrData=$buffer->ImageDataPtr();
print "ptrData prior to muck() is $ptrData\n";
$indexForImage = 640*480*3; # HARDCODED!!!! BEWARE CHANGES TO HARDWARE SETTINGS
for($i=0;$i<$indexForImage; $i++) {    
    muck($ptrData); # will print output from muck...
    $ptrData++;
}
$imaging->MemorySaveImage("c:\\ocr\\test2.bmp"); # nope! saves great!!!
($seconds, $microseconds) = gettimeofday;
$elapsed = tv_interval ( $t3, [$seconds, $microseconds]);
print "elapsed time is $elapsed s\n";
# end section
#-------------------------------------------

#-------------------------------------------
# second half of profiler:
# start section
print $imaging->ImageWidth();print ", ";
print $imaging->ImageHeight();print "\n";
($seconds, $microseconds) = gettimeofday;
$elapsed = tv_interval ( $t0, [$seconds, $microseconds]);
print "elapsed time is $elapsed s\n";
# end section
#-------------------------------------------


use Inline C;
__END__
__C__

void muck(long memory_address) {
    // convert using a type cast:
    unsigned char* Adr = (unsigned char*)memory_address;
    // perform some type of image processing:
    *Adr = 255 - (*Adr);
    // uncomment the following to see process from command line:
    // remember to use %ld, NOT %l!!!!
    //printf("Hello long: %ld!\n", memory_address);
    //printf("Hello address: %ld\n", Adr);
    //printf("Hello address contents: %ld\n", *Adr);

}