[MacRuby-devel] Frameworks Help

Sun Oct 31 21:20:29 PDT 2010

Hi Laurent,

Thanks for the follow up. The C Framework I am working with is a USB library
for sensor kit called Phidgets.

http://www.phidgets.com/programming_resources.php

It is a cross-platform C Library so I am sure they are not using NSThread.
All their Cocoa examples were written a few years ago prior to Garbage
Collection. They do say in their documentation that all the functions are
thread safe. I don't have access to the source for the USB kext so I am not
sure how I would go about registering these threads. I am just starting to
work with this product so I am afraid I don't have a very in-depth knowledge
of how it works.

I did run the software for 18 hours without an error message. (I get one
when I launch the application but as soon as I spawn an NSThread everything
seems to go smoothly).

I know this is a very generic description and I do appreciate any extra
comments or suggestions you may have (ie. If I am setting myself up for
trouble!)

Thanks,

Shaun

On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 2:39 PM, Laurent Sansonetti
<lsansonetti at apple.com>wrote:

> Hi Shaun,
>
> It's hard to really make a diagnosis because I don't know much about the C
> code you're interfacing with MacRuby, but
> the auto_zone_thread_registration_error() error is raised because a posix
> thread has been started but has not been registered with the GC, and then
> called MacRuby.
>
> If the C code you're calling uses NSThreads, this error should not be
> raised since NSThreads are aware of the GC, but if it creates threads using
> the pthread_create() posix API, then you will have to register the threads
> by yourself. You can use the objc_registerThreadWithCollector() API inside
> the pthread body, before doing any other operations.
>
> As your C code is multithreaded, you might want to look carefully if all
> your code base is thread-safe, and using NSLocks or GCD to isolate certain
> code paths.
>
> Laurent
>
> On Oct 29, 2010, at 10:41 PM, Shaun August wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> I have had some limited success going back and forth between the c
> framework, objective-c wrapper and MacRuby.
>
> I am getting numerous malloc errors when I start up the application. The
> application sort of runs after the first malloc error but after the second
> error it crashes almost immediately.
>
>
> 2010-10-29 21:31:06.323 YYY[3585:a0f] awaking the Phidgets
> YYY(3585,0x10374d000) malloc: *** auto malloc[3585]: error: GC operation on
> unregistered thread. Thread registered implicitly. Break
> on auto_zone_thread_registration_error() to debug.
>
> 2010-10-29 21:31:06.469 YYY[3585:5003] phidget Added
> 2010-10-29 21:31:06.563 YYY[3585:a0f] Phidget Added!
> 2010-10-29 21:31:06.563 YYY[3585:a0f] input changed
> 2010-10-29 21:31:06.564 YYY[3585:a0f] input changed
> 2010-10-29 21:31:06.564 YYY[3585:a0f] input changed
> 2010-10-29 21:31:06.565 YYY[3585:a0f] input changed
> 2010-10-29 21:31:06.567 YYY[3585:a0f] input changed
> 2010-10-29 21:31:06.568 YYY[3585:a0f] input changed
> 2010-10-29 21:31:06.568 YYY[3585:a0f] input changed
> 2010-10-29 21:31:06.568 YYY[3585:a0f] input changed
> YYY(3585,0x115944000) malloc: *** auto malloc[3585]: error: GC operation on
> unregistered thread. Thread registered implicitly. Break
> on auto_zone_thread_registration_error() to debug.
>
> 2010-10-29 21:31:16.595 YYY[3585:a0f] -[NSRegion InputChange:]:
> unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x200609f60
> 2010-10-29 21:31:16.596 YYY[3585:a0f] -[NSRegion InputChange:]:
> unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x200609f60
> 2010-10-29 21:31:16.914 YYY[3585:a0f] -[NSRegion InputChange:]:
> unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x200609f60
> 2010-10-29 21:31:16.915 YYY[3585:a0f] -[NSRegion InputChange:]:
> unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x200609f60
>
>
> I have read the malloc errors come from problems with the threading in the
> c libraries but I am not sure if there is anything I can do to fix this. Am
> I stuck with this error or is there a way around it?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Shaun
>
>
>
>
> On 2010-10-24, at 12:17 AM, Mario Steele wrote:
>
> Hey Shaun,
>
> On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 1:14 AM, Shaun August <shaun at eoslightmedia.com
> > wrote:
> Hi Again,
>
> I have spent some time with Nick's tutorial and I am looking into wrapping
> the framework I have been provided with and I have a few more questions.
>
> The framework I am working with is already compiled and not in an xcode
> file. I am guessing all I need to do is write the Objective-C wrapper?
>
> Yeah, all you have to worry about, is writing the wrapper, as it is what I
> did with my code writing for my wrapper.
>
> The other issue I am having is the framework only contains one header file
> which links out to a series of files contained in a system extension.
>
> The header file, is all you need to import, as it should define all public
> API Access you need, including structs, to interface with the binary
> library.
>
> Am I able to write my wrapper in an Objective-C class from within my
> macruby application or do I need to create a bundle and import that into my
> project.
>
> You will need to write Pure Objective-C code for the API Access, but the
> code can be included with your macruby application, in the project itself.
>  What will happen, is when you compile the main Objective C File, Main.m,
> it'll compile all the other Objective C files into the binary executable,
> that will eventually run your rb_main.rb file.  It'll give all the access of
> your Objective C libraries that you wrote, right within your application.
>
> hth,
>
> Mario
>
> Thanks,
>
> Shaun
>
>
>
>
> On 2010-10-19, at 10:12 PM, Mario Steele wrote:
>
> Hello Shaun,
>
> On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 12:00 AM, Shaun August <shaun at eoslightmedia.com
> > wrote:
> Hi Robert,
>
> Thanks! That make sense. All those cocoa classes have capitals and they
> work fine. I seem to be able to call from the framework but I am running
> into an undefined method 'extern'. I have also read somewhere that extern
> doesn't work with MacRuby. Is that correct? The framework I am dealing with
> is calling C functions and I am having trouble accessing them.
>
> extern is a macro for the ld library, to export an API Address in the
> Dynamic library, that can be access dynamically at run time.  With
> Objective-C, or more so specifically with MacRuby, you need to write a sort
> of thin wrapper around C Functions in Objective C, in order to access said
> Functions.  So if the framework that you are working with, doesn't expose
> Objective C API Functions, you'll need to write a thin wrapper in order to
> access them.  See the tutorial done by Nick Ludlam about wrapping the TagLib
> C Library, in Objective C.  You can find it here:
> http://www.macruby.org/documentation/reading-an-mp3-with-macruby.html  It's
> best to read through the entire article, as it gives you information about
> wrapping C Functions in Objective C, which is quite useful, when writing
> your own wrapper.
>
> hth,
>
> Mario
>
> Thanks,
>
> Shaun
>
>
> On 2010-10-19, at 8:26 PM, Robert Rice wrote:
>
> > Hi Shaun:
> >
> > Lower case method names is only a convention. MacRuby will work fine
> using upper case, i.e., constant, method names.
> > I know because I only recently changed my project to conform to the
> convention.
> >
> > Bob Rice
> >
> >
> > On Oct 19, 2010, at 7:17 PM, Shaun August wrote:
> >
> >> Hi There,
> >>
> >> I am attempting to work with a framework provided by a USB device
> manufacturer and all of their method names start with capitols and I am
> wondering about the easiest way to access these methods through macruby. I
> remember reading somewhere about fixing the constants in Obj-C but I cannot
> locate the information.
> >>
> >> Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to remedy this? Should I
> rename every command in the framework?
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >>
> >> Shaun
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> MacRuby-devel mailing list
> >> MacRuby-devel at lists.macosforge.org
> >> http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/macruby-devel
> >>
> >
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>
> --
> Mario Steele
> Lieutenant Commander 3
> XO - Geo 99
> XO - STO IFT Fleet
> http://www.trekfederation.com
> http://geo99.ruby-im.net
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> --
> Mario Steele
> Lieutenant Commander 3
> XO - Geo 99
> XO - STO IFT Fleet
> http://www.trekfederation.com
> http://geo99.ruby-im.net
>
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