clib

c++ stdlib and utils for D with noGC

Why

D's standard library isn't really noGC friendly, so, why not make somewhat of a noGC compatible runtime.

And why it's called clib? Because it's a betterCLibrary. But, despite the name it's mainly noGC library.

TODO: a Wiki or something like it.

Most of clib's C++ STL features are PRE C++11

I consider those features to be most essential. C++11 features will probably come after base features. Same for later C++ versions.

C STL

This library includes all (almost?) "aliases" to core.stdc.* modules in respective clib.* modules, some of which contain their own code (i.e clib.string).

C++ STL implementation list

• algorithm
• complex
• exception (partially implemented, but more as release-compatible asserts)
• fstream
• functional
• iomanip
• ios
• iosfwd
• iostream
• istream
• iterator
• limits
• locale
• memory (partially implemented, has Mallocator, _new and _free)
• numeric
• ostream
• sstream
• stdexcept
• streambuf
• strstream
• typeinfo (used only for extern(C++) classes)
• utility

C++ utils implementation

• bitset
• optional

C++ containers implementation

• deque (do not plan to implement it, not sure how to be completely honest, PR's are welcome though)
• list
• map
• queue
• set
• stack
• string (technically is an alias to vector!char with static if shenanigans. WIP)
• valarray (same as deque)
• vector

Custom modules

• format (exists in C++20 specs, but my version currently is for emulating c's format function)
• conv (just your normal type conversion, right now contains only c++ "casts")

On classes

D's keyword new can't be used with noGC and to "fix" that there's two functions: _new and _free in clib.memory which can be used to create classes with noGC.

clib.memory._new can be used to construct class and allocate memory for it and _free can be used to forcefully free class.

import clib.memory;
class Class {}

void main() @nogc {
    Class c = _new!Class();
    _free(c);
}

extern(C++)

TypeInfo (only use for extern(C++) classes)

To enable add versions "CLIB_USE_TYPEINFO" to dub.sdl or -version=CLIB_USE_TYPEINFO as compiler flag.

If you want some alternative to D's typeid and TypeInfo on extern(C++) classes then import clib.typeinfo and derive all your classes from CppObject. Albeit type_info can't provide with everything that TypeInfo provides since D does not provide any RTTI for C++ classes. Example of usage:

import clib.typeinfo;

// D way:
class DClass {}
class DChild: DClass{}
DChild dprt;
if (typeid(dprt) != typeid(DClass)) printf("Not same\n");
if (typeid(DClass).is_base_of(typeid(DChild))) printf("Is child\n");

// Clib way:

class CClass: CppObject {
    // No need to do it for CppObject!
    // mixin RTTI!CppObject;
}
class CChild: CClass{
    // Must be done for each parent, including interfaces
    // but excluding CppObject
    mixin RTTI!CClass;
}

CChild cprt;
if (_typeid(cprt) != _typeid!CClass) printf("Not same\n");
if (_typeid!CClass().is_base_of(cprt)) printf("Is child\n");

clib.typeinfo.reinterpret_cast can be used to work around known bug.

import clib.stdio;
import clib.typeinfo;
import clib.memory;
import clib.conv;

extern(C++) class ICpp: CppObject {
    void base_func() @nogc nothrow { printf("ICpp func\n"); }
}

extern(C++) class CppClass: ICpp {
    mixin RTTI!ICpp;
    override void base_func() @nogc nothrow { printf("CppClass func\n"); }
}

extern(C) int main() @nogc nothrow {
    CppClass c = _new!CppClass();

    void test_base_func(ICpp base) {
        base.base_func();
        reinterpret_cast!ICpp(base).base_func(); // doesn't matter as it's already ICpp
    }

    test_base_func(c); // will case segfault!!!
    test_base_func(reinterpret_cast!ICpp(c)); // must be a cast
    reinterpret_cast!ICpp(c).test_base_func(); // or treat it as member
}

Disable GC

Before main function or entrance point put:

import clib.memory: DISABLE_GC;
mixin DISABLE_GC;

Development

• dmd / ldc / gdc - D compiler
• dub - D package manager
• just - Make system
• valgrind - Memory checker
• reuse - See License

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

• Copy of used licenses can be found in LICENSES folder. Main license can be found in LICENSE file.
• List of authors can be found in AUTHORS.md.

This project is REUSE compliant.