Restructured API library

Suggestions
1

First of all, let me say that the concept you’ve come up with is brilliant.

However, as someone who only writes in C++ when I am in a really machocistic mood, I feel very let down by the fact that the FrontPanel API is in effect only accessible by C++ programmers.

I would personally rather have seen that C++ programmers were treated on an equal footing with, say, Delphi programmers, by being given access to the base functionality in the form of a DLL or a COM interface.

This would not in any way preclude you from supplying a C++ class as you do at the moment, it would just be a class built upon a common (DLL?) platform available to all.

I toyed with the idea of creating the DLL myself, until I noticed that a couple of functions return std::string. Duh! At that point it just seemed like far too much hassle…

Just my $0.02 worth…

  • Niels
2

Hi Niels-

Thanks for your feedback.

The C++ library provides several advantages in our development environment. While it isn’t the ideal language for everyone, we felt that it offered the most “ubiquity” (certainly over Delphi and C#) without a lack of the features we wanted to build upon (object oriented structure) which are missing from C.

A C wrapper could quite easily be written around the C++ library. Our usage of the std::string class is mainly to help avoid the typical pitfalls of char *. If you need a char *, you can cal std::string::c_str() and get one, then copy it with strncpy() or your preferred method.

Although we have no plans to support a C wrapper, I’d be more than happy to help you with the conversion if you have any questions.