-- This file is part of Hoppy. -- -- Copyright 2015-2021 Bryan Gardiner -- -- This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify -- it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by -- the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or -- (at your option) any later version. -- -- This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, -- but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of -- MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the -- GNU Affero General Public License for more details. -- -- You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License -- along with this program. If not, see . {-# OPTIONS_GHC -fno-warn-unused-imports #-} -- | The Hoppy User's Guide module Foreign.Hoppy.Documentation.UsersGuide ( -- * Overview -- $overview -- * Getting started -- $getting-started -- ** Project setup -- $getting-started-project-setup -- ** A first binding -- $getting-started-a-first-binding -- ** Types -- $getting-started-types -- ** Wrapping up the string binding -- $getting-started-wrapping-up-the-string-binding -- ** Functions -- $getting-started-functions -- ** Objects -- $getting-started-objects -- *** Generated bindings -- $getting-started-objects-generated-bindings -- *** Passing and returning objects -- $getting-started-objects-passing-and-returning-objects -- *** Garbage collection -- $getting-started-objects-garbage-collection -- *** Conversions -- $getting-started-objects-conversions -- ** API versioning -- $getting-started-api-versioning -- * Generators -- $generators -- ** C++ -- $generators-cpp -- *** Module structure -- $generators-cpp-module-structure -- *** Object passing -- $generators-cpp-object-passing -- *** Callbacks -- $generators-cpp-callbacks -- ** Haskell -- $generators-hs -- *** Module structure -- $generators-hs-module-structure -- **** Variable exports -- $generators-hs-module-structure-variables -- **** Enum exports -- $generators-hs-module-structure-enums -- **** Function exports -- $generators-hs-module-structure-functions -- **** Callback exports -- $generators-hs-module-structure-callbacks -- **** Class exports -- $generators-hs-module-structure-classes -- *** Module dependencies -- $generators-hs-module-dependencies -- *** Object passing -- $generators-hs-object-passing -- *** Exceptions -- $generators-hs-exceptions ) where import Data.Bits (Bits) import Foreign.C (CBool, CDouble, CFloat, CInt, peekCString, withCString) import Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Language.Haskell import Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Main import Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Spec import Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Types import Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Version import Foreign.Hoppy.Runtime import Foreign.Ptr (FunPtr, Ptr) import Language.Haskell.Syntax ( HsName (HsIdent), HsQName (UnQual), HsType (HsTyCon), ) import System.IO.Unsafe (unsafePerformIO) {- $overview Hoppy is a foreign function interface (FFI) generator for interfacing Haskell with C++. With Hoppy, you can specify C++ interfaces in pure Haskell, and generate code to expose that functionality to Haskell. Hoppy is made up of a few different packages that provide interface definition data structures and code generators, some runtime support for Haskell bindings, and interface definitions for the C++ standard library. Bindings using Hoppy have three Cabal packages: - A Haskell generator program (in @\/myproject-generator@) that knows the interface definition and generates code for the next two parts. - A C++ library (in @\/myproject-cpp@) that gets compiled into a shared object containing the C++ half of the bindings. - A Haskell library (in @\/myproject@) that links against the C++ library and exposes the bindings. The path names are suggested subdirectories of a project, and are used in this document, but are not required. Despite the second being called a C++ library and containing C++ code, all three of these are Haskell packages, built using Cabal. -} {- $getting-started This section provides a gentle introduction to working with Hoppy. -} {- $getting-started-project-setup To set up a new Hoppy project, it's recommended to start with the template project in the @example\/@ directory. You can find this in the Hoppy source repository: This is a minimal project that defines a C++ function to reverse a @std::string@, exposes that to Haskell via a library, and provides a demo program that uses the library. The @example\/install.sh@ script simply compiles and installs the generator, C++, and Haskell packages in turn. The generator package specifies the C++ interface to be exposed, using the functions and data types described in the rest of this section. The C++ package is mostly empty, primarily containing a @Setup.hs@ file that invokes Hoppy build hooks, and any C++ code of our own that we want to bind to, beyond what's provided by third-party libraries. For this example, we add a @reverse()@ function and make use of the C++ standard library. If we were writing a binding for an existing third-party library, we might not need to provide any C++ code ourselves here. When building this package, Hoppy generates some C++ code and then relies on a Makefile we provide for linking it together with any code we provided (see @example\/example-cpp\/Makefile@). If you are relying on a system library, you can link to it in the Makefile. The Haskell package is even more empty than the C++ one. It contains a similar @Setup.hs@ to invoke Hoppy. Nothing else is included in the package's library, although you are free to add your own Haskell modules. The executable ties everything together by calling the C++ code. It reverses the characters of each input line it sees. To publish this project, one would upload all three packages to Hackage. (But make sure to rename it first!) -} {- $getting-started-a-first-binding A complete C++ API is specified using Haskell data structures in "Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Spec". At the top level is the 'Interface' type. An interface contains 'Module's which correspond to portions of functionality of their interface; that is, collections of classes, functions, files, etc. Functionality can be grouped arbitrarily into modules and doesn't have to follow the structure of existing C++ files. Modules contain 'Export's which refer to concrete bound entities ('Function's, 'Class'es, etc.). For starters, we will look at a single class. Let's write a binding for @std::string@. An initial version could start as follows. @ import "Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Spec" c_string :: 'Class' c_string = 'addReqIncludes' ['includeStd' \"string\"] $ 'makeClass' ('ident1' \"std\" \"string\") (Just $ 'toExtName' \"StdString\") [] [ 'mkCtor' \"new\" [] , 'mkConstMethod' \"at\" ['intT'] 'charT' , 'mkConstMethod' \"string\" [] 'sizeT' ] @ There is quite a bit to look at here, so let's work through it. First, everything that can be exported has two names besides the name used for the Haskell binding (@c_string@ above). 'Identifier's are used to specify the qualified C++ names of exports, including namespaces and template arguments. For this example, our identifier is @std::string@, which we specify with the 'ident1' call above. The number indicates the number of leading namespace components. 'ident' can be used for top-level entities. Exported entities also each have an /external name/ that uniquely identifies it within an interface. This name can be different from the name of the C++ entity the export is referring to. An external name is munged by the code generators and must be a valid identifier in all languages a set of bindings will use, so it is restricted to characters in the range @[a-zA-Z0-9_]@, and must start with an alphabetic character. Character case in external names will be preserved as much as possible in generated code, although case conversions are sometimes necessary (e.g. Haskell requiring identifiers to begin with upper or lower case characters). In the example, the 'toExtName' call specifies an explicit external name for the class. @Nothing@ may be provided to automatically derive an external name from the given identifier. The derived name is based on the last component of the identifier, which in this case is just @string@. Converting this to a Haskell type name gives @String@, which collides with the built-in string type, so we give an explicit external name instead. The third argument to 'makeClass' is a list of superclasses. @std::string@ does not derive from any classes so we leave this empty in the example. When specifying interfaces in Hoppy, only publicly accessible components need to (and in fact, can) be referenced by Hoppy: public base classes, public methods and variables, but never protected or private entities. The final argument to 'makeClass' is a list of entities within the class. Here we can specify constructors, methods, and variables that the class exposes, via the 'ClassEntity' type. There are a few sets of methods for building class entities: - Basic forms: 'makeCtor', 'makeMethod', and 'makeClassVariable' are the core functions for building class entities. These are fully general, and take parameters both for the C++ and external names, as well as staticness, constness, etc. There is also 'makeFnMethod' for defining a method that is actually backed by a C++ function, not a method of the class; this can be used when manual wrapping of a method is required, to wrap a method with a function but make it look like a method. - Convenience forms: 'mkCtor', 'mkMethod', 'mkConstMethod', 'mkStaticMethod', 'mkProp', 'mkBoolIsProp', 'mkBoolHasProp', 'mkStaticProp', and 'mkClassVariable' only take the C++ name, and derive the external name from it, as well as assuming other parameters (staticness, etc.). These are what you typically use, unless you need overloading, in which case use the overloading forms below. - Overloading forms: 'mkMethod'', 'mkConstMethod'', and 'mkStaticMethod'' are convenience functions for overloaded methods. Overloading is handled by defining multiple exports all pointing to a single C++ entity. These in turn become separate Haskell functions. Because external names must be unique though, a different external name must be provided for each overloaded form; this is the second argument to these functions. - Unwrapped forms: Underscore forms for all of the above are provided as well (e.g. 'mkMethod_' and 'mkMethod'_') that return the actual object they create ('Method', 'Ctor', 'ClassVariable') instead of wrapping the result in a 'ClassEntity' as is usually desired. Generated C++ bindings for exported entities usually need @#include@s in order to access those entities. This is done with 'Include' and 'Reqs' types. When defining bindings, all exportable types have an instance of the 'HasReqs' typeclass, and 'addReqIncludes' can be used to add includes. 'includeStd' produces @#include \<...>@ statements, and 'includeLocal' produces @#include \"...\"@. This use of 'addReqIncludes' also indicates a common pattern for writing class bindings. After constructing a 'Class' with 'makeClass', there are a number of functions that modify the class definition in various ways. These functions' types always end in @... -> 'Class' -> 'Class'@, so that they can be chained easily. Among others, these functions include: - 'addReqIncludes' to add needed C++ @#include@ statements. - 'classAddEntities' to add additional entities to a class. - 'classAddFeatures' to add common functionality to a class. - 'classMakeException' to add exception support for a class. - 'classSetConversion' to configure an implicit conversion. The main point to using all of these functions is to chain them on the result of 'makeClass', but to bind the Haskell binding to final resulting value. For instance, if we have the following class: @ c_NotFoundException :: 'Class' c_NotFoundException = 'addReqIncludes' ['includeStd' \"exceptions.hpp\"] $ 'classMakeException' $ 'makeClass' ('ident' \"NotFoundException\") Nothing [] [ 'mkCtor' \"newCopy\" ['objT' c_NotFoundException] ] @ Then, 'addReqIncludes' and 'classMakeException' modify the class object, and the constructor definition makes use of the resulting object. This works as intended. In some cases the order of modifiers is important -- for example, marking a class as an exception class requires that there be a copy constructor defined beforehand -- but usually order of modification does not matter. Another point of note is the @c_@ prefix used on these two classes. A suggested naming convention for entities is: - @v_@ for variables ('Variable'). - @f_@ for functions ('Function'). - @c_@ for classes ('Class'). - @e_@ for enums ('CppEnum'). - @cb_@ for callbacks ('Callback'). - @mod_@ for modules ('Module'). Hoppy follows this convention, but you are not required to in your own bindings. It enables the use of proper casing on the actual entity name, and avoids collision with existing Haskell names. Given all this, we can improve our @std::string@ binding. The @at()@ method provides a non-const overload that returns a reference to a requested character. Let's have two versions of @at()@, as well as expose the fact that @std::string@ is assignable, comparable, copyable, and equatable, with a second version: @ c_string :: 'Class' c_string = 'addReqIncludes' ['includeStd' \"string\"] $ 'classAddFeatures' ['Assignable', 'Comparable', 'Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Spec.ClassFeature.Copyable', 'Equatable'] $ 'makeClass' ('ident1' \"std\" \"string\") (Just $ 'toExtName' \"StdString\") [] [ 'mkCtor' \"new\" [] , 'mkConstMethod'' \"at\" \"at\" ['intT'] $ 'refT' 'charT' , 'mkConstMethod'' \"at\" \"get\" ['intT'] 'charT' , 'mkConstMethod' \"string\" [] 'sizeT' ] @ -} {- $getting-started-types Let's take a break from @std::string@ for a moment and talk about how we represent data types in Hoppy. All C++ types are represented with the 'Type' data type, values of which are in the "Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Types" module. This includes primitive numeric types, object types, function types, pointers and references, @void@, the const qualifier, etc. A Hoppy 'Type' value has a corresponding C++ type, and also what we refer to as a C type, and possibly a Haskell type. The C++ type is, of course, whatever C++ type the 'Type' structure represents. The Haskell type is the Haskell data type that the C++ value gets converted to and from when using the bindings from Haskell code. The C type is the C data type that gets passed over the gateway between C++ and Haskell, because these types are the common denominator between C++ and Haskell. When passing values back and forth between C++ and Haskell, generally, primitive types are converted to equivalent types on both ends, and pointer types in C++ are represented by corresponding handle types in Haskell. Other types have special rules. Conversion code is generated on both sides of the gateway to perform the necessary conversions. For numbers, the Haskell FFI provides numeric types in "Foreign.C" for interfacing with C directly. Hoppy maps C++ numbers to these types, with the exception of @bool@, @int@, @float@, and @double@, which map to their native Haskell equivalents instead, for convenience ('Bool', 'Int', 'Float', 'Double'). The mapping between C++ and Haskell types is as follows. Types that we haven't covered are listed here for completeness. Some of these aren't really types, but are modifiers that are only useful in certain situations. - 'voidT': C++ uses @void@. The C type is unspecified. Haskell uses @()@. - 'boolT', 'intT', 'floatT', 'doubleT': C++ and C use @bool@, @int@, @float@, @double@. Haskell uses 'Bool', 'Int', 'Float', 'Double'. The common Haskell types are used here for convenience, but note that their sizes may differ from the C++ types. Coersion here performs bounds checking and will throw an exception if a value cannot be converted properly. - 'boolT'', 'intT'', 'floatT'', 'doubleT'': C++ and C use @bool@, @int@, @float@, @double@ as above. Haskell uses 'CBool', 'CInt', 'CFloat', 'CDouble'. In comparison to the above, the Haskell types here are identical to the C/C++ types, so no type conversion is performed, but fewer Haskell functions take these types as arguments, so they may be more awkward to use. - 'charT', 'ucharT', and other primitive numeric types: Identical C++ and C types; Haskell uses built-in foreign data types. See "Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Types" for more info. - 'enumT': C++ uses the enum type. C uses the numeric type underlying the enum; see 'enumNumericType'. Haskell uses a generated data type for the enum. - 'ptrT': C++ and C use the raw pointer type. The Haskell type depends on the pointed-to type. If it's an object pointer, then Haskell uses the generated handle data type for the class. If it's a function pointer, then Haskell uses a 'FunPtr' of the Haskell function in @IO@ with C types. Otherwise, Haskell uses a 'Ptr' to the C type of the pointed type. - 'refT': C++ uses the reference type. Everything else is the same as 'ptrT'. - 'fnT': Function types aren't useful raw, and need to be wrapped in 'ptrT' to be useable in parameter and return types. To specifying additional information about parameters, use 'fnT''. - 'callbackT': C++ uses the callback's generated functor class. C uses an internal implementation pointer. Haskell uses a function in @IO@ of the Haskell types of the parameters and return types. - 'objT': For objects passed by value (not wrapped in 'ptrT' or 'refT'), C++ uses the object type (or a const reference), C uses a pointer to the object, and Haskell uses a type configured for the class. - 'objToHeapT': Copies objects to the heap. - 'toGcT': Assigns objects to the garbage collector. - 'constT': Wraps types in @const@. Many of these types (enumerations, object types, functions, callbacks) are discussed in later sections. The above list is incomplete and only mentions the most commonly used types. See "Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Types" for more. You can also construct your own numeric types with 'makeNumericType', and more generally with 'ConversionSpec'. -} {- $getting-started-wrapping-up-the-string-binding Let's package up the @std::string@ binding to get a buildable example. We define a module to export the class, and an interface to collect our modules. @ import "Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Main" import "Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Spec" main :: IO () main = 'defaultMain' interfaceResult interfaceResult :: Either String 'Interface' interfaceResult = do iface <- 'interface' \"example\" [mod_string] 'interfaceAddHaskellModuleBase' [\"Example\"] iface mod_string :: 'Module' mod_string = 'moduleModify'' ('makeModule' \"mystring\" \"mystring.hpp\" \"mystring.cpp\") $ 'moduleAddExports' ['ExportClass' c_string] @ Each 'Module' produces separate C++ files to be compiled (a header and a source file), and a separate Haskell module. The Haskell module will be named @Example.Mystring@, which is the concatenation of the Haskell module base path defined on the interface, and the case-corrected name of the module. A custom module path can replace the default with 'moduleAddHaskellName'. -} {- $getting-started-functions Let's say we have a C++ function to compute the hypotenuse of a triangle: > double hypotenuse(double x, double y); To declare a binding for this, we can write: @ f_hypotenuse :: 'Function' f_hypotenuse = 'makeFn' \"hypotenuse\" Nothing 'Pure' ['doubleT', 'doubleT'] 'doubleT' @ Like the first two arguments to 'makeClass', the first two arguments to 'makeFn' are its C++ name, and an optional external name that will be derived from the C++ name if absent. The third argument indicates whether or not the function is pure. 'Nonpure' generates a function in @IO@, and 'Pure' generates a pure function (using 'unsafePerformIO' internally). Most functions should be marked as nonpure, either because they have side effects or because you want to control the order of their execution with respect to other functions with side effects, but in this case (assuming the implementation of @hypontenuse()@ just performs the calculation) we can mark it as pure. Finally, there are the parameter type list and return type. In Haskell, this will generate the following function, no surprises here: @ hypotenuse :: 'Double' -> 'Double' -> 'Double' @ -} {- $getting-started-objects There is a lot more to using classes than there is with functions, so we'll spend the next several sections discussing how objects work. -} {- $getting-started-objects-generated-bindings Now that we've seen what is generated for a function, let's see what is generated for our @std::string@ binding. Here is the definition again: @ c_string :: 'Class' c_string = 'addReqIncludes' ['includeStd' \"string\"] $ 'classAddFeatures' ['Assignable', 'Comparable', 'Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Spec.ClassFeature.Copyable', 'Equatable'] $ 'makeClass' ('ident1' \"std\" \"string\") (Just $ 'toExtName' \"StdString\") [] [ 'mkCtor' \"new\" [] , 'mkConstMethod'' \"at\" \"at\" ['intT'] $ 'refT' 'charT' , 'mkConstMethod'' \"at\" \"get\" ['intT'] 'charT' , 'mkConstMethod' \"string\" [] 'sizeT' ] @ The first thing that is generated are data types called __handles__ that represent pointers to instances. For each class, there are two handle types, a const and a nonconst version. These are distinct types so that we can enforce const-safety. Functions for casting constness are created as well. @ data StdString data StdStringConst castStdStringToConst :: StdString -> StdStringConst castStdStringToNonconst :: StdStringConst -> StdString instance 'Eq' StdString instance 'Eq' StdStringConst instance 'Ord' StdString instance 'Ord' StdStringConst instance 'Show' StdString instance 'Show' StdStringConst @ These instances operate on the underlying pointer. There is also a "Foreign.Hoppy.Runtime" module in the @hoppy-runtime@ package that holds various types and code needed at runtime, and generated bindings make extensive use of this package. There are a number of class-related typeclasses there that also contain these types. @ instance 'CppPtr' StdString instance 'CppPtr' StdStringConst instance 'Deletable' StdString instance 'Deletable' StdStringConst instance 'Foreign.Hoppy.Runtime.Copyable' StdString StdString instance 'Foreign.Hoppy.Runtime.Copyable' StdStringConst StdString @ 'CppPtr' is a typeclass for all handle types. Unless a class is marked as having a private destructor ('classSetDtorPrivate'), you will be able to delete it with 'delete'; deletability also enables garbage collection, discussed later. Finally, if a class has a copy constructor defined for it (either manually with 'mkCtor' or via the 'Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Spec.ClassFeature.Copyable' class feature), then it gets instances of 'Foreign.Hoppy.Runtime.Copyable'. Next, a set of typeclasses are generated to hold values representing the class, strings in this case. @ class StdStringValue a class 'CppPtr' this => StdStringConstPtr this where toStdStringConst :: this -> StdStringConst class StdStringConstPtr this => StdStringPtr this where toStdString :: this -> StdString instance {OVERLAPPABLE} StdStringConstPtr a => StdStringValue a -- (sic) instance StdStringConstPtr StdStringConst instance StdStringConstPtr StdString instance StdStringPtr StdString instance StdStringValue a => 'Assignable' StdString a @ The three typeclasses contain string-like types. @StdStringValue@ is the most general, and contains types that can be represented as a @std::string@. For now this includes the handle types; we'll see how to make good use of this typeclass in a bit. The other two typeclasses contain @std::string@ handles. @StdStringConstPtr@ contains all handles that via C++ implicit casting could be converted to a @StdStringConst@, and likewise for @StdStringPtr@ and @StdString@. This gives the instances above. The typeclasses' methods can be used to upcast, and optionally add const. In a hierarchy with derived classes, this would be more complicated. For an arbitrary class, the const typeclass has as superclasses the const typeclasses for all of the C++ class's superclasses (or just 'CppPtr' if this list is empty). The non-const typeclass has as superclasses the non-const typeclasses for all of the C++ class's superclasses, plus the current const typeclass. Instances will be generated for all handles as appropriate. This formalises const handles as parallel to nonconst handles in the hierarchy, but also above. The overlappable instance just says that all @std::string@ handles, const or nonconst, are @std::string@ values. Because we defined an assignment operator (@operator=@), we get an 'Assignable' instance, so that if we have a @StdStringValue@ value, we can assign it to a @StdString@ handle by calling that operator. We can also attempt downcasting using @dynamic_cast@. If @std::string@ had superclasses, their handles would have instances of the following typeclasses: @ class StdStringSuper a where downToStdString :: a -> StdString class StdStringSuperConst a where downToStdStringConst :: a -> StdStringConst @ Like @dynamic_cast@, these methods will return 'nullptr' if the given object is not of an appropriate type. -} {- $getting-started-objects-passing-and-returning-objects So how do we work with functions that expect objects? Suppose we have the following function: > void reverse(std::string&); Then if we define: @ f_reverse :: 'Function' f_reverse = 'makeFn' \"reverse\" Nothing 'Nonpure' ['refT' $ 'objT' c_string] voidT @ We'll get the following binding: @ reverse :: StdStringPtr this => this -> IO () @ Unlike primitive types, parameters for object types use typeclass constraints to accept a range of types, so that subclasses' handles can also be passed. There are five different object types that can be used in parameter and return types: 1. @('refT' $ 'constT' $ 'objT' c_string)@ is @const std::string&@. 2. @('refT' $ 'objT' c_string)@ is @std::string&@. 3. @('ptrT' $ 'constT' $ 'objT' c_string)@ is @const std::string*@. 4. @('ptrT' $ 'objT' c_string)@ is @std::string*@. 5. @('objT' c_string)@ is @std::string@. When used as a parameter type, cases 1 and 3 generate a Haskell parameter type of @StdStringConstPtr a => a@, and cases 2 and 4 generate a Haskell parameter type of @StdStringPtr a => a@. There is no distinction between references and pointers in Haskell, but if the C++ function expects a mutable object, then so does the Haskell binding. Case 5 generates a Haskell parameter type of @StdStringValue a => a@. You should use the type that the actual function expects, with one exception. When the type of a parameter of a C++ function is @const C&@ (case 1), it is recommended to just declare it as @C@ (case 5), since this is shorter and is fully equivalent when passing a handle (but is also open to the object having a conversion added in the future). This exception does not apply to function return types. When returning values from a function, cases 1 and 3 return a @StdStringConst@, cases 2 and 4 return a @StdString@, and what case 5 returns depends on the class's defined conversion (discussed later). -} {- $getting-started-objects-garbage-collection By default, object lifetimes are managed manually. They are created with constructors and eventually destroyed with 'delete' (or explicitly scoped via 'withScopedPtr'). Alternatively, ownership of objects can be passed to the Haskell garbage collector, to be deleted when no references are left from Haskell memory to the object. This is tracked internally by handles. Handles can either be unmanaged (as they are initially) or managed (by the collector). For simplicity, this is not reflected in a handle's type. A managed handle can be created from an unmanaged handle by calling 'toGc'. This assigns the object to be tracked by the collector, and 'delete' will be called on the object once no more handles are left pointing to it. 'toGc' returns a __new__ handle, and existing unmanaged handles for the object should no longer be used, since they will be dangling pointers once the object is destroyed. There are some points of caution around using this function that are worth knowing about; see the function documentation for more info. If you want to pass an object to the collector immediately upon creation, chain its constructor call with @('toGc' '=<<')@. Hoppy does not do this by default because we don't support revoking the collector's watch over an object, and there are times when you want to work with manually managed objects. 'toGcT' may be used when defining a function to make an object being passed into Haskell be managed by the garbage collector explicitly. But rather than using 'toGcT' with value objects, it's better to use 'classSetConversionToGc'. There is also a lesser-used 'objToHeapT' for copying a temporary onto the heap for Haskell code to manage without giving it to the garbage collector (and a corresponding 'classSetConversionToHeap'). -} {- $getting-started-objects-conversions Object pointer and reference types (@'refT' . 'objT'@, @'ptrT' . 'constT' . 'objT'@, etc.) use handles in Haskell to refer to objects living in C++ memory. By-value object types (not pointers or references, just the by-value object types, 'objT' directly) are treated differently. When an object is taken or returned by value, this typically indicates a lightweight or short-lived, easily copied object, and Hoppy provides a few different behaviours to choose from to handle these. For instance, you can choose to use objects returned by value via garbage-collected handles, or you can define automatic conversions to and from a Haskell type. This is all controlled by the 'ClassConversion' object that lives on each 'Class'. Within, 'ClassHaskellConversion' has three fields that control by-value behaviour: - An optional Haskell data type is specified with 'classHaskellConversionType'. - Optional logic for converting an object from a handle into an object of the specified Haskell type is specified with 'classHaskellConversionFromCppFn'. - Optional logic for converting a value of the specified Haskell type into a handle is specified with 'classHaskellConversionToCppFn'. The Haskell type here is the same as the Haskell type for 'objT' mentioned earlier, in the section on types. With the other two fields, we introduce the concept of __class convertibility__. A class can be convertible in zero, one, or both directions to and from C++, depending on which of the latter two fields above are specified. Both of the conversion logic fields, if present, require that a Haskell type be specified as well. All of these fields include 'Generator' in their types. This is a Haskell code generation monad that supports line-based output and also manages module imports and exports. Refer to 'ClassHaskellConversion' and "Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Language.Haskell" for more detail on writing custom conversions. For ease of use with @std::string@, we want strings in C++ to convert to strings in Haskell and vice versa, and we'll let the garbage collector handle the Haskell strings. We can do this by specifying the Haskell type as 'String', and writing conversions: @ c_string :: 'Class' c_string = 'addReqIncludes' ['includeStd' \"string\"] $ 'classAddFeatures' ['Assignable', 'Comparable', 'Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Spec.ClassFeature.Copyable', 'Equatable'] $ 'classSetHaskellConversion' 'ClassHaskellConversion' { 'classHaskellConversionType' = Just $ do 'addImports' $ 'hsWholeModuleImport' \"Prelude\" 'return' $ 'HsTyCon' $ 'UnQual' $ 'HsIdent' \"String\" , 'classHaskellConversionToCppFn' = Just $ do 'addImports' $ 'mconcat' ['hsWholeModuleImport' \"Prelude\", 'hsWholeModuleImport' \"Foreign.C\"] 'sayLn' \"'flip' 'withCString' stdString_newFromCString\" , 'classHaskellConversionFromCppFn' = Just $ do 'addImports' $ 'mconcat' ['hsImport1' \"Control.Monad\" \"(<=<)\", 'hsWholeModuleImport' \"Foreign.C\"] 'sayLn' \"'peekCString' <=< stdString_c_str\" } $ 'makeClass' ('ident1' \"std\" \"string\") (Just $ 'toExtName' \"StdString\") [] [ 'mkCtor' \"new\" [] , 'mkCtor' \"newFromCString\" ['ptrT' $ 'constT' 'charT'] , 'mkConstMethod'' \"at\" \"at\" ['intT'] $ 'refT' 'charT' , 'mkConstMethod'' \"at\" \"get\" ['intT'] 'charT' , 'mkConstMethod' \"c_str\" [] $ 'ptrT' $ 'constT' 'charT' , 'mkConstMethod' \"string\" [] 'sizeT' ] @ First we add @newFromCString@ and @c_str@ which we need to write the conversions. Whenever writing Haskell generator code, you need to import whatever types you want to use, in each of these individual actions, because they are used in different places during generation. The Haskell code that Hoppy writes only uses qualified imports, under aliases that begin with @Hoppy@ (with the exception of some standard infix operators which it imports unqualified). It does this to avoid conflicts between generated names and built-in ones, so you could use an external name of @String@ if you wanted to. You are welcome to import modules wholesale, as the example here does. @stdString_newFromCString@ and @stdString_c_str@ used in the conversion code are the generated methods. Conversion code is produced in the same Haskell module as the rest of the Haskell code for a class, so the class's methods are always present. The to-C++ conversion takes a Haskell @String@, converts it to a temporary C string, and creates and returns a @std::string@ from that. Conversely, the from-C++ conversion takes a const @std::string@, grabs its C string, and creates a Haskell string from it. So how does this let us use strings more easily? If we look back to what was generated for our string class earlier, we had a @StdStringValue@ typeclass that contained general @std::string@-like values. When we define a conversion to C++, then the Haskell @String@ also becomes an instance of this typeclass. So whenever a C++ function takes an argument of @std::string@, @const std::string&@, or @const std::string*@, we can now pass a @String@ and have it work automatically. When a C++ function returns a @std::string@, it will now automatically be converted to a @String@. For example, given a function: > std::string reverse(const std::string&); And a method binding: @ 'makeFn' "reverse" Nothing 'Nonpure' ['objT' c_string] $ 'objT' c_string @ We get the following Haskell function and instance: @ reverse :: StdStringValue a => a -> IO 'String' instance {OVERLAPPING} StdStringValue 'String' -- (sic) @ Note that when /returning/ an 'objT' from a function, there is no choice whether the Haskell type or a handle is returned; the conversion is always performed. If we just wanted to use the @StdString@ handle as the Haskell type for the class, but have objects returned to Haskell be garbage collected, then in our class definition we could use 'classSetConversionToGc' instead of 'classSetHaskellConversion'. This would change @reverse@ to have the following signature, and no @StdStringValue@ instance would be generated for 'String': @ reverse :: StdStringValue a => a -> IO StdString @ -} {- $getting-started-api-versioning Hoppy provides API versioning support in the "Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Version" module. This is mainly done with the 'collect', 'just', and 'test' functions, which are a simple wrapper around collecting a list of optional values: @ type 'Filtered' = Maybe 'collect' :: ['Filtered' a] -> [a] 'none' :: 'Filtered' a 'just' :: a -> 'Filtered' a 'test' :: Bool -> a -> 'Filtered' a @ These can be used anywhere a list is provided to Hoppy to filter based on some criteria. For example, the @std::pair@ binding in @hoppy-std@ defines a @swap@ method conditionally based on the version of the C++ standard being used: @ c_pair :: 'Class' c_pair = ... $ 'makeClass' ... $ 'collect' [ ... , 'test' ('activeCppVersion' >= 'Cpp2011') $ 'mkMethod' \"swap\" ['refT' $ 'objT' c_pair] 'voidT' ] @ It is up to you to decide how to pass to your feature flags into your generator (whether by environment variables, Cabal flags, etc.). If you use environment variables, you will need to use 'unsafePerformIO' to access them, since binding definitions don't have access to @IO@. For an example, see the implementation of 'activeCppVersion'. -} {- $generators This section describes the behaviour of the code generators, and documents what they output for each type of export. The code generators live at @Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Language.\@. The top-level module for a language is internal to Hoppy and contains the bulk of the generator. @General@ submodules expose functionality that can control generator behaviour. -} {- $generators-cpp The C++ code generator generates C++ bindings that other languages' bindings will link against. This generator lives in "Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Language.Cpp", with internal parts in "Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Language.Cpp.Internal". -} {- $generators-cpp-module-structure Generated modules consist of a source and a header file. The source file contains all of the bindings for foreign languages to make use of. The header file contains things that may be depended on from other generated modules. Currently this consists only of generated callback classes. Cycles between generated C++ modules are not supported. This can currently only happen because of @#include@ cycles involving callbacks, since callbacks are the only 'Export's that can be referenced by other generated C++ code. Also, C++ callbacks that handle exceptions depend on the interface's exception support module (see 'interfaceExceptionSupportModule'). -} {- $generators-cpp-object-passing @ 'ptrT' :: 'Type' -> 'Type' 'refT' :: 'Type' -> 'Type' 'objT' :: 'Class' -> 'Type' 'constT' :: 'Type' -> 'Type' @ We consider all of the following cases as passing an object, both into and out of C++, and independently, as an argument and as a return value: 1. @'objT' _@ 2. @'refT' ('constT' ('objT' _))@ 3. @'refT' ('objT' _)@ 4. @'ptrT' ('constT' ('objT' _))@ 5. @'ptrT' ('objT' _)@ The first is equivalent to @'constT' ('objT' _)@. When passing an argument from a foreign language to C++, the first two are equivalent, and it's recommended to use the first, shorter form (@T@ and @const T&@ are functionally equivalent in C++, and are the same as far as what values foreign bindings will accept). When passing any of the above types as an argument in either direction, an object is passed between C++ and a foreign language via a pointer. Cases 1, 2, and 4 are passed as const pointers. For a foreign language passing a @'objT' _@ to C++, this means converting a foreign value to a temporary C++ object. Passing a @'objT' _@ argument into or out of C++, the caller always owns the object. When returning an object, again, pointers are always what is passed across the language boundary in either direction. Returning a @'objT' _@ transfers ownership: a C++ function returning a @'objT' _@ will copy the object to the heap, and return a pointer to the object which the caller owns; a callback returning a @'objT' _@ will internally create a C++ object from a foreign value, and hand that object off to the C++ side (which will return it and free the temporary). Object lifetimes can be managed by a foreign language's garbage collector. 'toGcT' is a special type that is only allowed in certain forms, and only when passing a value from C++ to a foreign language (i.e. returning from a C++ function, or C++ invoking a foreign callback), to put the object under the collector's management. Only object types are allowed: 1. @'toGcT' ('objT' cls)@ 2. @'toGcT' ('refT' ('constT' ('objT' cls)))@ 3. @'toGcT' ('refT' ('objT' cls))@ 4. @'toGcT' ('ptrT' ('constT' ('objT' cls)))@ 5. @'toGcT' ('ptrT' ('objT' cls))@ Cases 2-5 are straightforward: the existing object is given to the collector. Case 1 without the 'toGcT' would cause the object to be converted, but instead here the (temporary) object gets copied to the heap, and a managed pointer to the heap object is returned. Case 1 is useful when you want to pass a handle that has a non-trivial C++ representation (so you don't define a conversion for it), but it's still a temporary that you don't want users to have to delete manually. Objects are always managed manually unless given to a garbage collector. In particular, constructors always return unmanaged pointers. When a managed pointer is passed into C++, that it is managed is lost in the FFI conversion, and if this pointer is then passed back into the foreign language, it will arrive in an unmanaged state (although the object is still managed, and it should not be assigned to the collector a second time). -} {- $generators-cpp-callbacks > data Callback = Callback ExtName [Type] Type ... -- Parameter and return types. > > callbackT :: Callback -> Type We want to call some foreign code from C++. There are two choices for doing so, described below. Declaring a callback provides support for both types of invocation. __Function pointer:__ Function pointers are expressed with a @'ptrT' ('fnT' ...)@ type. Foreign runtimes' FFIs can provide a means for creating raw function pointers directly (Haskell's does with 'FunPtr'). Hoppy provides an optional layer that performs the necessary type conversions, but only the foreign half of the conversions, so only C types can be used within function pointer types (this is a limitation of speaking over a C FFI; an error is signaled when trying to use a type that requires C\<->C++ conversion). The other downside of using function pointers is that C++ provides no lifetime tracking, and because in general foreign code can't know how long some C++ code is going to hold a function pointer, it's necessary to manage the lifetime of the pointer manually. __C++ functor:__ This is the preferred method for calling into foreign code. This type is expressed with 'callbackT'. It wraps the function pointer support above in C++ functors that add automatic lifetime tracking. Internally, we create a class G that takes a foreign function pointer and implements @operator()@, performing the necessary conversions around invoking the pointer. In the event that the function pointer is dynamically allocated (as in Haskell), then this class also ties the lifetime of the function pointer to the lifetime of the class. But this would cause problems for passing this object around by value, so instead we make G non-copyable and non-assignable, allocate our G instance on the heap, and create a second class F that holds a @shared_ptr\@ and whose @operator()@ calls through to G. This way, the existance of the F and G objects are invisible to the foreign language, and (for now) passing these callbacks back to the foreign language is not supported. When a binding is declared to take a callback type, the generated foreign side of the binding will take a foreign function (the callback) with foreign-side types, and use a function (Haskell: callbackName) generated for the callback type to wrap the callback in a foreign function that does argument decoding and return value encoding: this wrapped function will have C-side types. The binding will then create a G object (above) for this wrapped function (Haskell: using callbackName'), and pass a G pointer into the C side of the binding. The binding will decode this C pointer by wrapping it in a temporary F object, and passing that to the C++ function. The C++ code is free to copy this F object as much as it likes. If it doesn't store a copy somewhere before returning, then the when the temporary F object is destructed, the G object will get deleted. -} {- $generators-hs The Haskell code generator lives in "Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Language.Haskell", with internal parts in "Foreign.Hoppy.Generator.Language.Haskell.Internal". Central to generated Haskell bindings is the idea of type sidedness and the 'HsTypeSide' enum. When a value is passed to or from C++, it needs to be converted so that the receiving language knows what to do with it. The C++ side of bindings just exchanges C types across the language boundary and does not do conversions, so it is up to the Haskell side to do so. Internally, the Haskell generator refers to types exchanged with C++ as /C-side/ types, and types the bindings exchange with user Haskell code as /Haskell-side/ types. These are both Haskell types! The terminology is overlapped a bit but generally, /type/ or /C++ type/ refers to a 'Type', and in the context of the Haskell generator, /C-side/ or /Haskell-side/ apply to a 'HsType', calculated from a 'Type' and a 'HsTypeSide' using 'cppTypeToHsTypeAndUse'. For many primitive C++ types, the C-side and Haskell-side types are the same. -} {- $generators-hs-module-structure The result of generating a Hoppy module is a single Haskell module that contains bindings for everything exported from the Hoppy module. The Haskell module name is the concatenation of the interface's 'interfaceHaskellModuleBase' and the module's 'moduleHaskellName'. The contents of the module depends on the what 'Export's the module has. -} {- $generators-hs-module-structure-variables A 'Variable' is exposed in Haskell as a getter function and a setter function. For a variable with external name @foo@ with Haskell-side type @Bar@, the following functions are created: > foo_get :: IO Bar > foo_set :: Bar -> IO () -} {- $generators-hs-module-structure-enums A 'CppEnum' is exposed in Haskell as an enumerable data type. For an enum defined as follows: @ alignment :: 'CppEnum' alignment = 'makeAutoEnum' ('ident' \"Alignment\") Nothing 'EnumUnscoped' [ "LeftAlign" , "CenterAlign" , "RightAlign" ] @ or declared with manual enum values specified: @ alignment :: 'CppEnum' alignment = 'makeEnum' ('ident' \"Alignment\") Nothing [ (0, [\"left\", \"align\"]) , (1, [\"center\", \"align\"]) , (2, [\"right\", \"align\"]) ] @ the following data type will be generated: @ data Alignment = Alignment_LeftAlign | Alignment_CenterAlign | Alignment_RightAlign | Alignment_Unknown Int @ with instances for a Hoppy 'Foreign.Hoppy.Runtime.CppEnum' typeclass, in addition to the standard 'Eq', 'Ord', and 'Show' typeclasses. A 'Bits' instance is also generated by default. This can be disabled with 'enumSetHasBitOperations'. The \"Unknown\" entry is used to represent enum values that weren't declared in the Hoppy interface, e.g. when a value is passed from C++ to Haskell. This entry's name can be changed with 'enumSetUnknownValueEntry', or disabled with 'enumSetNoUnknownValueEntry'. -} {- $generators-hs-module-structure-functions For a 'Function' export, a single Haskell function will be generated named after the external name of the export. The function will take the Haskell-side types of its arguments, and return the Haskell-side type of its return type. If the function is 'Nonpure' then it will return a value in 'IO', otherwise it will return a pure value using 'unsafePerformIO'. For most 'Type's, the corresponding Haskell parameter type will be a concrete type. This differs for objects (and references and pointers to them), where typeclass constraints are used to implement C++ parameter type contravariance. See the section on Haskell object passing for more details. -} {- $generators-hs-module-structure-callbacks Declared callbacks provide support for callback types ('callbackT') as well as function pointers (@'ptrT' ('fnT' ...)@) in Haskell. Callback types manifest directly as Haskell function types in @IO@. Function pointers manifest as 'FunPtr's around Haskell function types in @IO@. No runtime support is exposed to the user for working with internal Haskell callback types (some machinery is generated however). For function pointer types, a function @callbackName_newFunPtr@ is exposed from the callback's module that makes it easy to wrap anonymous functions in 'FunPtr's that perform the Haskell side of conversions, with code like the following: > -- Generator bindings > > cb_intCallback = makeCallback "IntCallback" [intT] intT > > f_funPtrTest = makeFn "funPtrTest" Nothing Nonpure [ptrT $ fnT [intT] intT] intT > > f_callbackTest = makeFn "callbackTest" Nothing Nonpure [callbackT cb_intCallback] intT > -- Test program > > import Foreign.C (CInt) > import Foreign.Hoppy.Runtime (withScopedFunPtr) > > -- Generated things: > intCallback_newFunPtr :: (Int -> IO Int) -> IO (FunPtr (CInt -> IO CInt)) > funPtrTest :: FunPtr (CInt -> IO CInt) -> Int > callbackTest :: (Int -> IO Int) -> Int > > -- Driver code: > callFunPtrTest = withScopedFunPtr (intCallback_newFunPtr $ return . (* 2)) funPtrTest > callCallbackTest = callbackTest $ return . (* 2) -} {- $generators-hs-module-structure-classes 'Class'es expose quite a few things to the user. Take a simple class definition such as: @ compressor :: 'Class' zipper :: 'Class' zipper = 'makeClass' ('ident' \"Zipper\") Nothing [compressor] [ 'mkCtor' \"new\" [] ] [ 'mkStaticMethod' \"canZip\" [] 'boolT' , 'mkConstMethod' \"hasZipped\" [] 'voidT' , 'mkMethod' \"zip\" [] 'voidT' ] @ Let's focus on @zipper@. Two data types will be generated that represent const and non-const pointers to @Zipper@ objects: @ data Zipper data ZipperConst @ Internally, these types hold 'Ptr's, and they can be converted to 'Ptr's with 'toPtr' (though this conversion is lossy for pointers managed by the garbage collector, see the section on object passing). Several typeclass instances are generated for both types: - 'Eq', 'Ord', and 'Show' compare and render based on the underlying pointer address. - 'CppPtr' and 'Deletable' instances provide object management. - A single @'Decodable' ('Ptr' Zipper) Zipper@ instance is generated for converting raw 'Ptr's into object handles. This is the opposite operation of 'toPtr'. - If the class -- @Zipper@ in this case -- has an @operator=@ method that takes either a @'objT' zipper@ or a @'refT' ('constT' ('objT' zipper))@, then an instance @ZipperValue a => 'Assignable' Zipper a@ is generated to allow assigning of general zipper-like values to @Zipper@ objects; see below for an explanation of @ZipperValue@. This instance is for the non-const @Zipper@ only. There will also be some typeclasses generated, for types that represent @Zipper@ objects: @ class ZipperValue a where withZipperPtr :: a -> (ZipperConst -> IO b) -> IO b instance CompressorConstPtr a => ZipperValue a class CompressorConstPtr a => ZipperConstPtr a where toZipperConst :: a -> ZipperConst class (ZipperConstPtr a, CompressorPtr a) => ZipperPtr a where toZipper :: a -> Zipper instance ZipperConstPtr ZipperConst instance ZipperPtr Zipper ... instances required by superclasses ... @ Ignoring the first typeclass and instance for a moment, the two @Ptr@ typeclasses represent const and non-const pointers respectively, and allow upcasting pointer types. The const typeclass has as superclasses the const typeclasses for all of the C++ class's superclasses (or just 'CppPtr' if this list is empty). The non-const typeclass has as superclasses the non-const typeclasses for all of the C++ class's superclasses, plus the current const typeclass. Instances will be generated for all of the appropriate typeclasses for @Zipper@ and @ZipperConst@, all the way up to 'CppPtr'. The @ZipperValue@ class represents general @Zipper@ values, of which pointers are one type (hence the first @instance@ above). Values of these types can be converted to a temporary const pointer. If @Zipper@ were to have a native Haskell type (see 'classHaskellConversion'), then an additional instance would be generated for that type. This second instance in this case is overlapping, and the above instance is overlappable. These typeclasses allow for mixing pointer, reference, and object types when calling C++ functions. For downcasting, separate const and non-const typeclasses are generated with instances for all direct and indirect superclasses of @Zipper@: @ -- Enables downcasting from any non-const superclass of Zipper. class ZipperSuper a where downToZipper :: a -> Zipper -- Enables downcasting from any const superclass of Zipper. class ZipperSuperConst a where downToZipperConst :: a -> ZipperConst instance ZipperSuper Compressor ... instances for other non-const superclasses ... instance ZipperSuperConst CompressorConst ... instances for other const superclasses ... @ The downcast functions are wrappers around @dynamic_cast@, and will return a null pointer if the argument is not a supertype of the target type. Finally, Haskell functions are generated for all of the class's constructors and methods. These work much the same as function exports, but non-static methods take a @this@ object as the first argument. Const methods take a @ZipperValue@ on the assumption that it's safe to create a temporary C++ object from a Haskell value if necessary to call a const method. Non-const methods take a @ZipperPtr@, since it's potentially a mistake to perform side-effects on a temporary object that is thrown away immediately. @ zipper_new :: 'IO' Zipper zipper_canZip :: 'IO' 'Bool' zipper_hasZipped :: ZipperValue this => this -> 'IO' 'Bool' zipper_zip :: ZipperPtr this => this -> 'IO' 'Bool' @ -} {- $generators-hs-module-dependencies While generated C++ modules get their objects from @#include@s of underlying headers and only depend on each other in the case of callbacks, Haskell modules depend on each other any time something in one references something in another (somewhat mirroring the dependency graph of the binding definitions), so cycles are much more common (for example, when a C++ interface uses a forward class declaration to break an @#include@ cycle). Fortunately, GHC supports dependency cycles, so Hoppy automatically detects and breaks cycles with the use of @.hs-boot@ files. The boot files contain everything that could be used from another generated module, for example class casting functions needed to coerce pointers to the right type for a foreign call, or enum data declarations. The result of this cycle breaking is deterministic: for each non-trivial strongly connected component in the module dependency graph, @.hs-boot@ files are generated for all modules, and all @.hs@ files' dependencies within the SCC import @.hs-boot@ files. -} {- $generators-hs-object-passing All of the comments about argument passing for the C++ generator apply here. The following types are used for passing arguments from Haskell to C++: > C++ type | Pass over FFI | HsCSide | HsHsSide > ------------+---------------+----------+----------------- > Foo | Foo const* | FooConst | FooValue a => a > Foo const& | Foo const* | FooConst | FooValue a => a > Foo& | Foo* | Foo | FooPtr a => a > Foo const* | Foo const* | FooConst | FooValue a => a > Foo* | Foo* | Foo | FooPtr a => a @FooPtr@ contains pointers to nonconst @Foo@ (and all subclasses). @FooValue@ contains pointers to const and nonconst @Foo@ (and all subclasses), as well as the convertible Haskell type, if there is one. The rationale is that @FooValue@ is used where the callee will not modify the argument, so both a const pointer to an existing object, and a fresh const pointer to a temporary on the case of passing a @Foo@, are fine. Because functions taking @Foo&@ and @Foo*@ may modify their argument, we disallow passing a temporary converted from a Haskell value implicitly; 'withCppObj' can be used for this. For values returned from C++, and for arguments and return values in callbacks, the 'HsCSide' column above is the exposed type; polymorphism as in the 'HsHsSide' column is not provided. Object pointer types in Haskell hide whether they are managed (garbage collected) or unmanaged pointers in their runtime representation. The APIs that bindings expose to Haskell users should generally not require them to be concerned about object lifetimes, and also having separate data types for managed pointers would balloon the size of bindings. Unmanaged objects can be converted to managed objects with 'toGc'; after calling this function, the value it returns should always be used in place of any existing pointers. -} {- $generators-hs-exceptions C++ exceptions can caught and thrown in Haskell. C++ entities that deal with exceptions need to be marked as such, for Hoppy to generate the support code for them. To work with exceptions at all, you need to pick one of your Hoppy modules to contain some runtime support code, using 'interfaceSetExceptionSupportModule'. C++ functions that throw need to be marked with the specific exceptions that they throw, using 'handleExceptions'. Callbacks that want to be able to throw need to be marked with 'callbackSetThrows', after which they are allowed to throw any exception classes defined in the interface. Exception handling in both directions can also be set up at the module and interface levels using 'handleExceptions', 'interfaceSetCallbacksThrow', and 'moduleSetCallbacksThrow'. Classes can be marked as being exception classes with 'classMakeException'. Exception classes need to be copyable, so make sure to define a copy constructor (use 'Copyable'). C++ exceptions in Haskell are handled with 'throwCpp' and 'catchCpp'. While they use Haskell exceptions under the hood, do not use 'throw' and 'catch' to work with them; this may leak C++ objects. Catching a wildcard (i.e. @catch (...)@) is supported, but no information is available about the caught value. Implementation-wise, an in-flight C++ exception in Haskell always owns the object (which is on the heap). An exception coming from C++ into Haskell (it's a heap temporary) will be given to the garbage collector. Hence, for ease of use, caught exceptions should always be garbage-collected. Also, when throwing from Haskell, throwing will always take ownership of the object. If 'throwCpp' gets a non-GCed object, then it will be given to the garbage collector; and then the exception will be thrown as a Haskell exception. If the exception propagates out to a callback and back into C++, then a temporary non-GCed copy will be passed over the gateway, and rethrown as a value object on the C++ side. In the above strategy, when throwing an exception from Haskell that propagates to C++, it is wasteful to make the thrown object GCed, just to have to create a non-GCed copy. So when we throw from Haskell, we don't actually assign to the garbage collector immediately (if it's not already); instead, we delay the 'toGc' call until 'catchCpp'. -}