On 8 November 2012 22:50, Jimmie Houchin <jlhouchin@gmail.com> wrote:
I am developing an application which needs to access a proprietary business API to access data from their servers.
Currently because I don't know how to do that from within Pharo, I have been using Python/COM. But that API is deprecated and expires soon. Now I have to move to an app which accesses via either a C/C++ app which accesses a DLL, a .NET library or a Java jar.
There are a number of objects that have to be created from the dll/jar, and a number of interfaces which have to be implemented from the dll/jar. Presently I am studying Clojure in order to work from the Java side. I do not know Clojure or Java. If I could learn sufficient C and do this with NB in Pharo, that would be very nice.
I have never done anything like what NB does, so I do not know what all it does or can do.
It can do anything you can do :)
Can Pharo implement the interfaces provided in the DLL in the Smalltalk side?
Pharo can't , you can :) But if you talk about COM interfaces, then yes. It is doable. The only problem is, that it is not done by anyone.
Or would the interfaces have to be implemented on the C side and then Pharo access the objects?
AFAIK, COM is fairly simple. You need to do a lill parsing deciphering IDL interface, and frankly i don't remember all the details. But at the end, it is just a bunch of C calls. With NativeBoost you can do calls to C .. so it is doable. Again, Dolphin Smalltalk can use COM , so if it can be done there, i don't see why it is impossible to do the same in Pharo.
Any advise greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Jimmie
-- Best regards, Igor Stasenko.