[erlang-questions] client in erlang server in objective C
Dmitry Klionsky
dm.klionsky@REDACTED
Wed Jul 18 15:00:15 CEST 2012
Answers inlined.
On Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 12:07 PM, Dmitry Klionsky
<dm.klionsky@REDACTED> wrote:
>> > Decided to help you a little further:
>> Thanks - I appreciate this ...
>> I have a few more questions (inline)
>> >
>> > The problem is you can't just send("button", ...), because the "button" is
>> > not a symbol, but a NSButton's class (or something like this) instance.
>> > I'm not sure because I've never done any MacOX programming, but iOS.
>> > And in order to send a message to an instance you need to know it. So, in
>> > general, your workflow should be like this:
>> >
>> > Erlang side:
>> > %% create button
>> > send
>> > {create_instance, {string, "NSButton"}}
>> > receive
>> > {ok, Instance}
>> question 1:
>> Is Instance an integer here? (see question 3)
Yes, see below.
>> >
>> > %% set button's title
>> > send
>> > {perform, {integer, Button} {string, "setTitle:"}, {string, "click me"}}
>> Button is the integer in "Instance" above I assume
Right. Typo :(
>> > receive
>> > ok
>> >
>> >
>> > Objective-C side
>> >
>> > On receiving {create_instance, {string, Clazz}}:
>> >
>> > // note that `Class' is a reserved word
>> > id instance = [[NSClassFromString(Clazz) alloc] init];
>> > if (instance) {
>> What is instance? is this "really" a 32 bit pointer?
>> How do I serialize it to send it back to erlang?
Yes, it's a 32 or 64 bit pointer depending on the machine.
I guess you can use any method as long as serialization/deserialization
sequence gives the original value.
>> > reply {ok, instance};
>> > } else {
>> > reply {error, @"No such class"}
>> > }
>> >
>> > On receiving {perform, {integer, Instance}, {string, Selector}, {string,
>> > Object}}:
>> > SEL sel = NSSelectorFromString(Selector);
>> > if (sel) {
>> > if ([Instance respondsToSelector(sel)]) {
>> > [Instance performSelector:sel withObject:Object];
>> > reply ok;
>> > } else {
>> > reply {error, @"No such selector"};
>> > }
>> > } else {
>> > reply {error, @"Invalid selector"}
>> > }
>> Same question here. On the "wire" I'll see an encoding of
>> {perform, {integer, Instance}, ... and so on How do I make an Objective
>> C id or NSString from a sequence of bytes that I read from a socket.
>> Also do I have to worry about strings (for example) being garbage
collected.
>> For example If I say (in objective C)
>> NSString s = @"hello"
>> I create a literal string in the variable s
>> But if I receive a string "hello" somewhere in a buffer from a socket
>> I need to create a NSString and put it somewhere so it doesn't get
>> garbage collected away. Something like:
>> NSMutableArray *stringtable = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
>> NSString s = [[NSString alloc] initWithString: Data]
>> [stringtable addObject:s];
>> (Pardon my Objective C here - I'm a total beginner here)
For id see above, just make sure you restore the same value you got from
the `id instance = [[NSClassFromString(Clazz) alloc] init]' call.
The `instance' is just a pointer, so I'm pretty sure this will work.
Regarding the strings. You receive an array of bytes and it's possible
to build an NSString object out of them, like this:
char array[5] = {'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', '\0'};
NSString *string = [NSString stringWithCString:array
encoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
Also as long as you create an NSString object and pass it as a param to
a method you don't need to worry about the string being garbage collected.
>> > This was a little messy, but hopefully you will get the idea.
>> Yes - I get the idea, the problem is the nitty gritty details, not
>> the idea.
>> The idea is easy. Allocate some memory to store the stuff you
received in
>> create some dynamic objects and call some methods - problem is how.
>> Thanks - I'll try this later
>> /Joe
Hope this helps :)
>
>
>
> On 07/18/2012 11:42 AM, Dmitry Klionsky wrote:
>>
>> Hi Joe,
>>
>> NSSelectorFromString, NSClassFromString and others are your friends here.
>>
>> For more detail have a look at:
>>
>> Objective-C Runtime Programming Guide
>>
>> https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/ObjCRuntimeGuide/Introduction/Introduction.html
>>
>> Objective-C Programming Language
>>
>> https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/ObjectiveC/Introduction/introObjectiveC.html
>>
>> Also I would also suggest you to evaluate the protobuffs. In my opinion
>> the protobuffs are more concise and clear.
>> There a couple of Objective-C implementations available:
>> http://code.google.com/p/metasyntactic/wiki/ProtocolBuffers
>> https://github.com/booyah/protobuf-objc
>>
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Dmitry Klionsky
>>
>>
>> On 07/18/2012 11:10 AM, Joe Armstrong wrote:
>>>
>>> That's a very interesting idea. I haven't used thrift - but if the server
>>> side code exists in Objective C this would be very interesting.
>>>
>>> (I tried to build thrift but the build failed :-)
>>>
>>>
>>> I've now actually got an erlang client talking to an objective C
>>> server - using AsnycSocket that Bob suggested but I can only exchange
>>> strings.
>>>
>>> Now I need to figure out how to do build dynamic method calls in
>>> objective C.
>>>
>>> In objective C I'd write
>>>
>>> [button setTitle:@"click me"]
>>>
>>> In Erlang I'd like to encode this as a string
>>> send it to objective C decode it and evaluate it.
>>>
>>> I'd like to do something like
>>>
>>> send("button", "setTitle", [{string,"click me"}])
>>>
>>> In erlang
>>>
>>> or to encode [foo this:123 that:@"yea"] as
>>>
>>> send("foo", "this:that", [{integer,123},{string,"yea"}])
>>>
>>> Then I'd like to serialize this as a string (in Erlang) and decode it
>>> and evaluate it in Objective C
>>>
>>> Any ideas how to do this?
>>>
>>> /Joe
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Jul 17, 2012 at 11:48 PM, Anthony Molinaro
>>> <anthonym@REDACTED> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> What about thrift http://thrift.apache.org/
>>>>
>>>> It's RPC style so you describe function calls, erlang clients are easy,
>>>> the objective-c server would be generated for you (other than the
>>>> body of the function).
>>>>
>>>> I've been using thrift to talk java->erlang and erlang->java, so
>>>> talking erlang->objective-c should be straightforward.
>>>>
>>>> Some examples http://wiki.apache.org/thrift/ThriftUsageObjectiveC
>>>>
>>>> -Anthony
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Jul 14, 2012 at 06:27:49PM +0200, Joe Armstrong wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> I want the following:
>>>>>
>>>>> - Client in erlang (easy)
>>>>> - Server in objective C (I'm thinking Mac OS-X lion - xcode 4.2 -
>>>>> cocoa)
>>>>> - socket communication
>>>>>
>>>>> [[ I'm a complete beginner with xcode/objective C ]]
>>>>>
>>>>> Has anybody written a simple objective C client that opens a port
>>>>> waits for a message then executes a callback. This should be
>>>>> non-blocking
>>>>> and be integrated with the "standard" dispatcher top-loop.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm confused by the profusion of classes that almost do this.
>>>>>
>>>>> Has anybody implemented this, or have pointers to a good place to
>>>>> start.
>>>>>
>>>>> Cheers
>>>>>
>>>>> /Joe
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> erlang-questions mailing list
>>>>> erlang-questions@REDACTED
>>>>> http://erlang.org/mailman/listinfo/erlang-questions
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Anthony Molinaro<anthonym@REDACTED>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> erlang-questions mailing list
>>> erlang-questions@REDACTED
>>> http://erlang.org/mailman/listinfo/erlang-questions
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Dmitry Klionsky
>
> _______________________________________________
> erlang-questions mailing list
> erlang-questions@REDACTED
> http://erlang.org/mailman/listinfo/erlang-questions
More information about the erlang-questions
mailing list