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Technical details

These are some of the technical details about how Octoid works. It is planned to expand these details over time.

Translation Process

TObjCHeaderTranslator.Translate

This method is central to the translation process. By way of CreateCombinedHeaderFile it searches for .h files in the frameworks Headers folder, and combines them into a temporary .h file which is passed to the ParseTranslationUnit method. The result is a translation of all the declarations in the framework and dependent libraries. The Cursor property of TranslationUnit is the root cursor for accessing all the declarations

TCustomTranslator.VisitTypes

The VisitTypes method, which is passed to VisitChildren method of the root Cursor in TCustomTranslator.AnalyzeTypes, traverses all declaration cursors, and adds the cursor to the respective list, depending on the type of declaration, i.e.:

  • FConsts for constants and enumerated constants
  • FTypes for structs, unions, and typedefs (includes interface types in Objective-C)
  • FDeclaredTypes for types that may be 'forward' declared

HandleTypeDeclaration is overridden in TObjCHeaderTranslator and adds the cursor to these lists:

  • FClasses for types to be declared as interfaces/classes
  • FCategories for types to be 'aggregated' to classes
  • FExportedContsts for types to be declared as functions that retrieve the value from the framework

TObjCHeaderTranslator.HandleTypeDeclaration

Adds declarations to the respective lists, and for Objective-C interface and category declarations, does 'discovery' of block method types that need to be added to the type declarations.

TObjCHeaderTranslator.DiscoverBlockMethods

Iterates the methods of the declared type, and if a parameter that is a block method type is discovered, adds the method to the FBlockMethods list, including any parameters declared in the block method type.

TCustomTranslator.WriteDelphiSource

Writes the unit source, i.e.

  • Copyright header (if any)
  • Unit name based on the platform and framework
  • Interface uses clause based on the dependent frameworks. NOTE: This needs attention as it can result in frameworks being added that are not dependencies
  • Constants
  • Types - in the order of: forward declarations, types, classes
  • Functions
  • Implementation uses clause
  • Exported const functions
  • Module load handling

TCustomTranslator.WriteTypes

Writes the forward declarations (e.g. Objective-C interfaces), types (e.g. structs translated to records), classes (Objective-C) and exported const functions

TObjCHeaderTranslator.WriteClasses

Handles writing of block methods (see also TObjCHeaderTranslator.DiscoverBlockMethods), classes and exported const function prototypes.

TObjCHeaderTranslator.WriteInterfaceType

Writes the 'Interface Class', 'Interface Instance' and Objective-C import class declarations.

TObjCHeaderTranslator.WriteInterfaceClassType and TObjCHeaderTranslator.WriteInterfaceInstanceType

Writes the declaration header, and enumerates the methods and adds them to FMethods. When adding the method, a check is made for existing methods so as to resolve method overloading. The overloads are then resolved, the methods are sorted in alpha order and written out. At the end of TObjCHeaderTranslator.WriteInterfaceInstanceType the Objective-C import class declaration is written.

Conversion

Types

Conversion of simple types is achieved via the TypeMap dictionary. Most types are set up in the overridden TObjCHeaderTranslator.DoSetupTypeMap method, however it might be possible to push some back to TCustomTranslator.SetupTypeMap.

Actual conversion is done in the TObjCHeaderTranslator.GetDelphiTypeName method.