Re^3: XS, raspberry pi, and a hundred bucks

[stevieb]

I usually use Inline::C for initial prototypes and quick one-off tests before I write an actual XS module. I never want a user to have to require Inline.

[NERDVANA]

Check out Inline::Module. It lets you develop using Inline and then package it in a way that all the Inline compilation happens during Makefile.PL and then the resulting installed module doesn't require Inline.

It's a bit of effort to learn, but I got it working in OpenGL::Sandbox, even packaged up with Dist::Zilla!

[perlfan]

That seems fair - mind explaining why? I am only asking for my own edification. I've written exactly one XS module on CPAN, and I had a lot of help; but I can say for sure that any use of Inline::C has not been for anything I plan to distribute broadly. That said, the one difference I can see between the 2 is that XS modules are compiled once on install; Inline::C run the risk of being recompiled if the cache goes away - usually at an inopportune time.

[Anonymous Monk]

Indeed Inline::C generates an xs distribution, you only have to use it once to bootstrap an xs module

[bliako]

Hmmm, yes and no. Because I did not find a straight forward way to tell Inline::C NOT to cleanup XS code after successful compilation. From its source code, the cleanup option is in {API} hash which I do not know how to affect. The very round-about way of doing this was to break the compilation by introducing an obvious error in the C code. That would leave the XS file in the build dir. Albeit broken but easily fixable. That's all based on my own experiments as documentation is a bit scarce. It would be a good feature to allow for converting the hidden XS distribution to a stand-alone module in a straight-forward way. (Edit: see Anonymous response below with proper solution)

On the very serious other hand, NERDVANA mentions Inline::Module (unknown to me a minute ago) which provides exactly this functionality. I have not tried it yet.

FWIW, this tells Inline::C to place the output binaries to specific directory ("unhiding" it!) - provided output dir exists. BUT I did not manage to tell it to NOT cleanup so that I can use the XS code. So I can only use the binaries. (Edit: same as above edit)

use Inline C =>          
        Config =>
                # dir must already exist!
                DIRECTORY => 'xxx'
;
use Inline 'C';
# perl code
...
__END__
__C__
// C code

bw, bliako