> On Thu, Oct 16, 2003 at 02:12:36PM -0700, Dean Arnold wrote: > > Has anyone attempted to write a DBD > > using Inline::C (or C++) ? I'm looking into updating a driver > > to selectively switch between a pure Perl implementation, > > and a native C i/f to a low level vendor API library if its available, in order > > to get more performance/functionality. Inline::C looked > > like an attractive alternative (esp w/ Inline::Struct) to all the XS > > madness. This would allow the driver to exploit Perl's > > strenghts for parsing SQL, mapping things w/ hashes, etc, but > > use the vendor lib for the low level data movement, as opposed > > to writing a complete DBD in C/XS. > > I don't think any DBD is pure C/XS. All have a significant amount of perl. > > Driver authors wanting to use C don't have to write _any_ XS if they > use the Driver.xst template mechanism (which is strongly recommended). > > Then just add some logic around the "bootstrap()" method call in > the .pm file. The .pm file can implement the same methods as the > C/XS code and, if the c/XS code hasn't been bootstraped, then the > perl methods will be called instead. Simple. > > Tim.
Hmmm, guess its been a while since I've hacked on DBD::ODBC, but it sure seemed like a lot of XS and C. But I was very much an XS newbie at the time, so perhaps my view is jaundiced. Perhaps my question is also colored by the fact that I already have a pure Perl driver, and am just looking to adapt to a vendor lib for the low-level protocol calls. This notion probably arises from Inline::Struct more than Inline::C, since the API I'm using is driven primarily from a well-defined 'C' struct, with just a handful of method calls. Based on Inline::Struct's POD, it seems pretty easy to directly manipulate a C struct directly from Perl, then make a simple Inline::C function wrapper (with a tiny bit of perlguts'ness) to drive the execution. And now I'm designing out loud, so I'll shut up...but will still likely pursue this concept; it probably wouldn't work well for other function-based APIs like ODBC, but for data structure driven APIs, esp from a pre-existing pure Perl driver, it looks promising. Thanks, Dean Arnold Presicient Corp. www.presicient.com
