Re: JAWIN Digest - 17 Aug 2004 to 18 Aug 2004 (#2004-77)

Morten, 
        attached is a
patch to the jawinuserguide_dll.html, containing an overview (my understanding
of it) of the instruction strings and the stack size. When you get a chance,
please review it. I am not 100% confident that there are no inaccuracies
in the explanation, and I tried not to make it too detailed or involved.
Next, I will probably try to go over all instruction strings and document
some examples of their usage. Along these lines, I was wondering : why
does the Transform.cpp use literals in the process() method, instead of
using the pre-defined values from instructions.h ? 

        I am also working
on a Parameters class that would automate & simplify most of the basic
instruction string building, some of the marshalling of ints, strings,
buffers, etc, and stack size calculations. I will provide that together
with the generated structs from VJ++. For handling structs, my idea is
to basically  extend the Struct classes created by VJ++ (which contain
all data elements), and have the child class implement a predefined interface
(e.g. JawinCStruct), which will define the operations that will be necessary
for the Parameters class (e.g. marshal, marshallOut, size, token, etc).
 

        Regarding my initial
impression that JTB was able to generate stubs for regular dll-s (without
type info compiled in them) - I double checked the updated documentation
and it explicitly states that it is not supported. So, I was either looking
at an older version of the docs, or I misunderstood - the current documentation
is very clear about it. 

        


> Date:    Wed, 18 Aug 2004 14:04:49 +0200
> From:    Morten Andersen <moa@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: Passing byte arrays into C functions
> 
> Hi Alex
> 
> A couple of quick notes, I will probably return with more later, when
I
> find better time.
> 
> Alex Kotchnev wrote:
> 
> >
> >>Some of the things your are talking about are of interest.
 If you have
> >>a sourceforge account I would be happy to turn it on for Jawin
and work
> >>with you on your projects.
> >
> >
> >    My sourceforge username is polrtex.
> 
> First, of course, welcome on board :-). Please let me know if you
get
> any problems setting up your build environment for Jawin (it should
be
> pretty straightforward as described in the docs/jawindeveloper.html
> document, but there could be some special issues that we have overlooked).
> 
> >
> > I was initially under the impression that the Jawin type browser
was able
> > to generate code from dll-s (I think that the documentation had
something
> > mentioning it).
> 
> If it is a DLL containing any of the COM structures mentioned on the
> jawintypebrowser.html page, we are able to generate code for some/most
> structures.
> 
> But if you are thinking of an "old" DLL with published "DLL
Entry
> Points" (such as the Win32 API), we are not able to do it. I
think this
> is what the documentation in the jawintypebrowser.html page says,
but if
> you find the exact location where we have written it incorrectly,
please
> feel free to correct it.
> 
> (you would probably also want to consult the new jawinuserguide_dll.html
> file, with information about calling DLL entry points).
> 
> >
> > I will collect examples as I work through my Win32 programming
book. I
> > will have to write-up my summary understanding of the marshalling
in
> > layman's terms the way I understand it(for me, it was quite a
steep curve
> > to figure out how the marshalling works and what it is all about
- I am
> > not all that good with C and I am not all that familiar with
what goes
> > into the stack, how big it has to be, etc). I have constructed
in my head
> > an explanation of the whole marshalling business, I will do a
write up and
> > send for review to see if I understand things correctly.
> 
> Sounds great, I assume you are still talking about the marshalling
when
> calling DLL entry points? - Your writing could probably finish section
> 3.2 in the jawinuserguide_dll.html document, where i newer got finished
> on explaining the instruction string and stacksize (please feel free
to
> ask on everything, no matter how trivial and simple the question feels,
> one could still waste _hours_ tumbling around in the marshalling code
-
> and there is a big chance that either Roger, Robert or myself can
answer
> the question quickly).
> 
> >
> > I am not very certain what you are referring to here. The examples
&
> > documentation will be an ongoing thing (no timeline). Currently,
I have
> > all the structs and constants for win32 generated (from VJ++)
and they
> > compile. The only thing that I might have to do is remove some
of the MS
> > generated @dll.import javadoc tags, and I can send them in. The
generated
> > functions signatures don't compile yet.
> 
> Sounds great. You should also check the content of the
> org.jawin.donated.win32 package (in the stubs/src folder) and the
> org.jawin.win32 package in the main src folder.
> 
> The org.jawin.win32 package contains some Win32 API structures used
> internally in Jawin. The org.jawin.donated.win32 package contains
some
> stubs I think Stuart wrote once, for manipulating with some of the
Win32
> API's (eg. there is code for manipulating the registry).
> 
> >
> > I also have stubs generated for MS Word and Excel that compile
and work -
> > as I had mentioned before, I am not sure how much value that
has, since
> > anyone who can run the Jawin browser can generate them on their
own (with
> > a few minor fixes). The value that I see in them is breaking
them up in a
> > separate project, that will come compiled & bundled with
the Jawin .dll,
> > so that Java developers that don't know anything about Jawin
(and don't
> > need to know anything about Jawin), can just drop the jar in
their
> > classpath and have full access to the MS Office APIs.
> 
> This is just what the donated packages are for. They are build into
the
> jawin-stubs.jar file (this was not in the last binary release, so
you
> will have to build "ant deploy" from the CVS-head yourself
to get this
> file).
> 
> Best Regards
> Morten
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Date:    Wed, 18 Aug 2004 16:01:03 -0400
> From:    Mukund Wassan <miyengar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: Getting Out Parameter value in Jawin
> 
> Hi Morten,
> 
> Its a great new feature! that works great!
> Thank you very much for sparing the time for the reply.
> BTW, the jawin documentation update is fantastic.
> 
> Thanks & Cheers to the Jawin team,
> Mukund
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> End of JAWIN Digest - 17 Aug 2004 to 18 Aug 2004 (#2004-77)
> ***********************************************************


Regards,

Alex Kotchnev
Developer / Systems Analyst
Diversified Information Technologies

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jawinuserguide_dll.patch
Description: Binary data