notes on binding C++

[Samuel Audet]

On 02/06/2018 08:19 PM, Maurizio Cimadamore wrote:
> On 06/02/18 07:52, Samuel Audet wrote:
>> That sounds great and all, but it has been almost 4 years now, and the 
>> only feedback I am getting is that it does not yet support 
>> function-like macros, inline functions, C++ templates, etc. Ok, then, 
>> when? Why is a "limited amount of wrappers" taking so long?
> Hi Samuel,
> I think I've already responded to similar questions many times now, and 
> I feel we're just going in circles; I sense your frustration, but 
> unfortunately I do not have anything more to add to this discussion. 
> I've told you what the focus is short/medium term (C interop), and what 
> is the _rough_ plan after that. If that is not sufficient, or if you 
> feel that we just got all the priorities wrong, or if you think we're 
> just too slow, I'm sorry, but I don't think those kinds of concerns are 
> of the kind that can be positively addressed over an email exchange.

I am sorry, I think that came out the wrong way. What I was trying to 
say is that supporting C++ and making it as super efficient as you want 
it to be is a *very hard problem*, and you will require assistance from 
a lot of people--from outside Oracle--to pull this off. I am trying to 
make you realize that, and yes I am frustrated that I am unable to 
communicate this, even after almost 4 years...

To make this conversation constructive, though, I am also trying to make 
suggestions, such as, why not use Clang? What is wrong with Clang? You 
already use it for jextract, and Graal already supports LLVM. Plus, 
people from Oracle Labs have already started work in this direction:
Bringing Low-Level Languages to the JVM: Efficient Execution of LLVM IR 
on Truffle (see "4. Native Calls and Memory Management")
http://ssw.jku.at/General/Staff/ManuelRigger/VMIL16.pdf
Is something like this going to be integrated into Panama?

Another constructive comment I would like to make is, would it be 
possible to release all the relevant documents about jextract and Panama 
so that people outside of Oracle could participate and make this a 
community effort? If you need more data to convince managers that this 
is required in order for this project to succeed, I can help with that! 
However, as I mentioned previously, I feel that my help (or the help 
from any outsiders for that matter) is not welcome here. It would be 
great if this state of affairs could be improved! (This might be for 
you, Bernard?)

Samuel