5
Gir-FFI uses FFI to read information from the GObject Introspection
6
Repository. Based on that it creates bindings for the information read.
8
## Class and method creation
10
GirFFI::Builder creates classes and modules at runtime and adds appropriate
11
method_missing methods to them to generate methods and perhaps other
12
classes when required.
14
The following options were discarded, at least for now.
16
* Create classes and all of their methods at runtime. This would be very
17
similar to the method chosen, but would concentrate all the overhead at
18
start-up, some of which would be used for creating methods that will
21
* Allow offline creation of ruby source generated from the GIR. This is
22
still in interesting idea, but off-line source code generation is not
27
Probably, get_x/set_x pairs should become x and x= to be more Ruby-like.
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This should be done either by defining them as such directly, or by
29
aliasing. Blindly going by the name leads to weird results thoough, like
30
having x, x= and x_full= as a set. Also, some get_ or set_ methods take
31
extra arguments. These probably shouldn't become accessors either.
33
Boolean-valued methods could get a ? at the end.
35
This requires a lot more thought. For now, the full method names as
36
defined in the GIR are used.
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## Ruby-GNOME Compatibility
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Full Ruby-GNOME compatibility cannot be achieved automatically, since its
41
object hierarchy differs from that of standard GObject: It puts Object in
42
the GLib namespace, and defines signal_connect and friends as methods of
43
GLib::Instantiable; In standard GObject they are functions.
45
Possibly, compatibility enhancing code can be added for these specific
50
Because we can always make sure GObjects are unref'd when the Ruby object
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is GC'd, the mechanism of floating references actually gets in the way a
52
bit. Therefore, when floating GObjects are constructed, GirFFI will sink
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them. All GObjects can then safely be unref'd using a Ruby finalizer.
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GObjects obtained through other mechanisms than with a constructor will be
55
ref'd once when wrapping them in a ruby object.
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## Bootstrapping Class Design
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The interface to the GObject Introspection Repository itself is also
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introspectable. The interface is specified in terms of structs and
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functions rather than objects and methods. For now, the hard-coded Ruby
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bindings for this don't follow the introspected specification: Gir-FFI
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cannot bootstrap itself.
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## Object initialization
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An attempt at making Thing.new less hacky.
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* No aliasing of Ruby's new. Overriding is possible with super being called.
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* #initialize should behave as expected. We may enforce use of super in Ruby
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Schematic depiction of what happens (can happen):
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def initialize *other_args
added
removed
DESIGN.md
