thiscall calling convention

[Don Clugston]

Max Samuha wrote:
> On Mon, 23 Oct 2006 09:59:56 -0400, "Jarrett Billingsley"
> <kb3ctd2 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>> "Max Samuha" <maxter at i.com.ua> wrote in message 
>> news:o14pj2teu31k82a6rnqfc7jbk422lrm05l at 4ax.com...
>>> I have a COM object which uses __thiscall linkage for its methods
>>> (guys who created the object have perfect sense of humor). Would you
>>> advice me of a good way to call those methods from D?
>> To use any COM interface from D, you can just create an interface which 
>> derives from IUnknown.  D will make the interface COM-compatible.
>>
>>
>> import std.c.windows.com;
>>
>> interface SomeInterface : IUnknown
>> {
>>    HRESULT method1();
>> }
>>
>> extern(Windows) export CreateSomeInterface();
>>
>> ...
>>
>> SomeInterface i = CreateSomeInterface();
>> i.method1();
>>
>>
>> Of course, if the library you're using (what are you using anyway?)  doesn't 
>> have a function which creates an instance of the COM object for you, you'll 
>> have to use QueryInterface from a base COM object, but.. 
>>
> 
> Thank you for the reply. It's not that i can't obtain the COM
> interface. I just can't call methods on that interface because the COM
> object implementation uses thiscall (not stdcall or cdecl) calling
> convention. This is an ASIO driver. The interface declaration does not
> specify the calling convention explicitly in their SDK (in C++):
> 
> interface IASIO : public IUnknown
> {
> 	virtual ASIOBool init(void *sysHandle) = 0;
> 	virtual void getDriverName(char *name) = 0;	
> 	virtual long getDriverVersion() = 0;
> 	...
> }
> 
> So MSVC++ which is used de facto to compile ASIO drivers for windows
> defaults to thiscall, effectively making the drivers crash when they
> are called by clients compiled in languages that don't support
> thiscall.

thiscall isn't standard in C++. It's an MSVC-only thing (but see below).

> I think, Walter has intended to add extern(C++): "C++ is reserved for
> future use". Will it be added?

If it is, it still won't solve the problem. There's no standard for 
extern(C++). Borland, MSVC, GCC, Watcom, DMC, all use different calling 
conventions. Failing to standardise the ABI was one of the appallingly 
bad C++ mistakes.

HOWEVER... *** IUnknown is treated specially by DMD ***
It is magical, and it makes all of the member functions use the MSVC 
'thiscall' calling convention. (There's no other way to specify 'thiscall').

It should just work. Have you actually tried it?

> A wrapper could be used to fix that
> (http://www.martinfay.com/openasio.htm) but someone may have a better
> idea?