C/C++ - API Bindings¶

GCC¶

The only dependency on Unix-like systems is pthreads, therefore a compilation of the example with GCC on Linux and macOS looks like this:

gcc -pthread -o example *.c

On Windows Win32 is used for threading and WinSock2 (ws2_32) for the network connection. Under MinGW we can compile the example as following (the library linking must come after the source):

gcc -o example.exe *.c -lws2_32 -ladvapi32

The simplest way to use the bindings in a C++ project is to rename the required source files from *.c to *.cpp. Then the compiler will treat the source code as C++ and does the right thing automatically.

Visual Studio¶

With Visual Studio we can use the example_project/ folder too. The simplest way to use the bindings in a Visual C++ project is to rename the required source files from *.c to *.cpp. Then the compiler will treat the source code as C++ and does the right thing automatically. This will also avoid the problem that the Visual Studio compiler supports the C89 standard only, but the bindings uses the newer C99 standard.

cl.exe /I. *.cpp /link /out:example.exe ws2_32.lib advapi32.lib

Qt Creator¶

A new Qt Creator project for the example_project/ folder can be created by clicking:

• File
• New File or Project...
• Choose Other Project
• Choose Empty Qt Project
• Click Choose...
• Choose "example_project" as Name
• Choose the folder that contains the example_project/ folder for "Create in"
• Click Next
• Click Next
• Click Finish

Qt Creator should now show an empty file named example_project.pro. Copy and paste the following lines into it and save the result:

TEMPLATE = app
CONFIG += console
TARGET = example_configuration
win32:LIBS += -lws2_32 -ladvapi32
unix:QMAKE_CXXFLAGS += -pthread
SOURCES += ip_connection.c brick_stepper.c example_configuration.c
HEADERS += ip_connection.h brick_stepper.h

This tells Qt Creator that this is an console application named "example_configuration". It is linked to the ws2_32 and advapi32 libraries on Windows and uses pthreads on Unix (Linux, macOS, etc).

Before stating the program you need to tick the "Run in terminal" check box on the project's run configuration tab, otherwise its output will not be visible.

Now the program can be compiled and started!

This is an example for a project in C. If you want to use the bindings in a C++ project then the simplest way to do this is to rename the required source files from *.c to *.cpp and to change the SOURCES line in example_project.pro accordingly. Then the compiler will treat the source code as C++ and does the right thing automatically.

If you want to add the C/C++ bindings to an existing Qt Creator project then you just need to add the required source files to the SOURCES and HEADERS variables and add these two lines to your .pro file:

win32:LIBS += -lws2_32 -ladvapi32
unix:QMAKE_CXXFLAGS += -pthread

Orwell Dev-C++¶

A new Dev-C++ project for the example_project/ folder can be created by clicking:

• File
• New
• Project...
• Choose Console Application and C Project
• Click Ok

Dev-C++ will now create a new files named main.c. We don't need it, remove it by clicking on "Remove file" in its context menu in the project view. Now add all files from the example_project/ folder to the project by clicking on "Add to Project" in the project's context menu.

Then libws2_32.a (WinSock2) and libadvapi32.a have to included by clicking:

• Project
• Project Options
• Parameters
• Click Add Library or Object
• Choose libws2_32.a and libadvapi32.a
• Click Open
• Click Ok

Now the program can be compiled and started!

This is an example for a project in C. If you want to use the bindings in a C++ project then the simplest way to do this is to rename the required source files from *.c to *.cpp. Then the compiler will treat the source code as C++ and does the right thing automatically.