I am toying with Ben's bindings to clang-c (C interface to the Clang C-indexer API). One of the main features of the C API is a way to visit the translation unit. This is implemented as a callback into Smalltalk with with "cursors" providing indirect access and simplified access to the node of the AST. The return result indicates how to continue the traversal (continue, stop, recurse). FFICallback signature: #( CXChildVisitResult ( CXCursor cursor, CXCursor parent, CXString client_data)) block: [ :cursor :parent :clientData | cursor spelling. <- booom but no crash aCXChildVisitResult value "@1" ]. "cursor" will be an Instance of CXCursor and is passed by value and the C struct size is >16 bytes (on Unix this is passed on the stack). The resulting CXCursor has a handle that is invalid to perform any call-out with. CXCursor getHandle FFIExternalStructureReferenceHandle handle: an Alien (isPointer = true, the stack ptr offset: 0 ExternalStructure defines valid types as ByteArray (the data) or ExternalAddress (the pointer). FFIExternalStructureReferenceHandle is missing there and I will create a separate thread/ticket about it. So somewhere from: FFICallback>>#valueWithContext:sp: ... FFICallbackArg>>#extractStructType: FFIExternalType>>#handle:at: FFIExternalStructureType>>#basicHandle:at: ee will need to convert the handle + offset (one based) to an ExternalAddress. Now the protocol of >>#handle:at: and >>#integerAt:, >>#pointerAt: indicate that we want to carry address+offset into late of the conversion. And I can't point my finger into where it should be done. I have created: Alien>>#referenceStructAt: byteOffset length: length ^self isPointer ifFalse: [super referenceStructAt: byteOffset length: length ] ifTrue: [ (ExternalAddress fromAddress: self addressField) + (byteOffset - 1)] This "fixes" it. But that is at the last point in the conversion. It shadows another problem as well. So in fact maybe changing: FFICallbackArgumentReader>>#extractPointerOfType: and >>#extractStructType: to read: ... pair := self nextBaseAddressForStructure: type. baseAddressToRead := ExternalAddress fromAddress: pair first address. <- modified offsetOfBaseAddress := pair second. ... is this the right way forward? We convert the stack to an ExternalAddress early on and use it. With the above change to FFICallbackArgumentReader the CXCursor from the stack will read as: CXCursor getHandle FFIExternalStructureReferenceHandle handle: ExternalAddress offset: 0 I am still not able to push this cursor to the stack. But that is for another mail. WDUT? holger