API sharing...any support for this idea?

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by Carl Ranson >> Mon, 30 Jul 2001 22:28:12 GMT

It seems to me that we all spend time during development entering the same windows API's (external functions) into jade.

What if there was a project to collect all the api's that people have already, collate it into a single schema file and make the results available to all? Perhaps it would even get included with Jade one day.

Note: I'm NOT talking about anything that is home made...just the std windows ones.

Anyone have strong feelings about this?
Cheers,
CR

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by Craig Shearer >> Tue, 31 Jul 2001 1:32:23 GMT

Carl

I think this is a great idea. It would certainly promote consistency amongst JADE developments, and also perhaps be a source of ideas of what Windows API functions were available, and how to use them.

It sounds very much like the file that came with VB that had all the Windows API function definitions in it (winapi.txt IIRC). There was even a little app that allowed you to browse the file and select a functions then copy and paste it into your code. Of course the copy and paste was only necessary as there was a performance hit if you had too many functions defined.

However, in JADE, it would be good if all the functions were already available. Though, I suppose there would need to be some filtering to remove those that JADE couldn't support, and didn't need to support anyway because JADE had already provided the same functionality.

If this is going to be a separate thing, then we need some place where it could be updated regularly and downloaded by developers as required. Would be good to have a website for this.

Craig.

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by Carl Ranson >> Tue, 31 Jul 2001 1:37:53 GMT

Hmm, most languages have a similar file...and indeed the full api docs are available online...

It would be interesting to see if a jade version could be generated from the website. I think i feel another pet project coming on.

CR

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by Wilfred Verkley >> Tue, 31 Jul 2001 3:22:10 GMT

Most people deal with the limitations of Jade calling external functions by writing a whole lot of utility functions (ie faking structures using binaries, reading memory locations etc). If you come up with a central repository, your also gonna have to allow people to share these utility functions too i think. It might be a good idea to come up with some standard functions to deal with the most common of these hacks.

Wilfred.

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by Carl Ranson >> Tue, 31 Jul 2001 4:18:11 GMT

It has come to my attention that the win32 api's are available as a database.

I'll keep you posted if I have any luck genrating a jade schema from this file.

Cheers,
CR