Matching an array-type of a C++ function signature in D, without using a D-array-type, because the compiler crashes otherwise

Simon simon.vanbernem at yahoo.de
Sat Mar 23 11:35:45 UTC 2019


Hi,
I experienced some trouble with DMD today, while trying to 
declare an external C++ function in D, that gets linked from a 
C++ compiled object file.

The C++ function that I want to link against is declared as 
follows:
bool ColorEdit4(const char* label, float col[4], int flags = 0);

Yielding the following signature in the .obj (using a demangler):
BOOL __cdecl ImGui::ColorEdit4(char const * __ptr64,float * 
__ptr64 const,int)

The Function is declared in D as follows:
extern(C++, ImGui) bool ColorEdit4(const(char)* label, float[4] 
col, int flags = 0);

Which unfortunately crashes the compiler, which tells me I can't 
use a D array-type here, and should use a pointer. If you want to 
know the full story, you can look into the bug-report: 
https://issues.dlang.org/show_bug.cgi?id=19759

So as a workaround until this is fixed, I somehow need to end up 
with the same mangled function signature, while using a pointer 
type for the second argument.

I tried:
extern(C++, ImGui) bool ColorEdit4(const(char)* label, const 
float* col, int flags = 0);

which yields:
BOOL __cdecl ImGui::ColorEdit4(char const * __ptr64,float * 
__ptr64,int)

so the 2nd argument is of type "float * __ptr64", when it should 
be "float * __ptr64 const".

Trying "const float* col" or "const(float)* col" doesn't yield 
the correct result either ("float const * __ptr64 const" and 
"float const * __ptr64"), and I didn't find any other 
combinations I could try.

Is there any way to end up with the correct mangled function 
signature, using only pointer types? Another workaround would of 
course be to switch to C-Linkage, so the names don't get mangled 
at all, but the C++-object file has function overloads, so I 
would like to avoid that. If this isn't possible, I might just 
wait for the dmd update.


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