ImportC + -H = bindings

[Lance Bachmeier]

On Friday, 24 April 2026 at 01:09:28 UTC, Kapendev wrote:
> I recently made a script/library called 
> [Clonoa](https://github.com/Kapendev/clonoa) that generates D 
> bindings from C files using ImportC.
> The way it works is really simple:
>
> 1. Runs: `compiler -o- -H file.c`
> 2. Parses the `.di` file from the command above and prints a 
> cleaned version of it to stdout.
>
> The generated output tries to avoid some redefinitions of Libc 
> symbols and it assumes that names starting with `_` are always 
> private, so they get skipped.
> Overall it does a good job of including the right things.
> For example, I was able to create bindings for SDL2 and use 
> them.
>
> To use the script via DUB, you can run:
>
> ```
> dub run clonoa
> ```
>
> Or even simpler, copy-paste the script into your own project.
> Clonoa is just one D file.

I'm not sure how it compares to clonoa, but I let ImportC do the 
translation of C headers in their entirety using the -Hf switch. 
Now, that isn't going to generate .di files that work, but I have 
a program that parses the files to remove duplicate definitions, 
functions with keywords as names, and whatever else doesn't work. 
It's at the point that it can automatically convert any C header 
I try.