Re: [boost] Checking interest in DynamicLoad/DLL/DSO/Plugin library

Subject: Re: [boost] Checking interest in DynamicLoad/DLL/DSO/Plugin library
From: Hartmut Kaiser (hartmut.kaiser_at_[hidden])
Date: 2014-08-16 08:29:58

> I'll try to answer all common questions in a single letter:
> 
> 2014-08-16 3:39 GMT+04:00 Hartmut Kaiser <hartmut.kaiser_at_[hidden]>:
> <...>
> 
> > From our experience a plugin library should additionally to your design
> > support:
> >
> > - arbitrary constructor arguments to the plugin object created:
> >
> >     typedef boost::shared_ptr<my_plugin_api> (pluginapi_create_t)();
> >     boost::function<pluginapi_create_t> creator =
> >         boost::plugin::shared_function_alias<pluginapi_create_t>(
> >             shared_library_path, "create_plugin");
> >
> >     boost::shared_ptr<my_plugin_api> plugin = creator(42, "foo", 3.14);
> >
> 
> Yes, you may export/import *any* functions with any signatures in any
> namespace using the Plugin library.
> 
> ABI problem and name mangling is solved by BOOST_PLUGIN_ALIAS macro, that
> produces a portable C name of an exported function or variable. That's all
> what can be done. Constructing a C structures from C++ classes for each
> C++
> class in attempt to make std::string/std::vector portable across library
> boundaries looks very unreasonable to me. Compiler developers and library
> users must take care of it, not the library itself.
> 
> I'll add this notes from above to the docs.

Good. Nice to hear that I can have 'virtual' constructors with your library.

> > - the ability to extract a list of plugin object names from a given
> shared
> > library ( I assume that your library allows to have several plugin types
> in
> > the same shared library)
> >
> 
> Could be queried using the bool res =
> lib.search_symbol("some_name_of_the_plugin")

That's not what I meant. You're suggesting to find a known symbol. I was
suggesting to find the list of names for the existing (unknown) plugins. 

Thanks!
Regards Hartmut
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