RetroZilla/embedding/wrappers/DotNETEmbed/ManagedGecko.html
2015-10-20 23:03:22 -04:00

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<title>Convert Gecko from unmanged to managed code in .Net</title>
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<h1 style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: center;">Wrapping Gecko APIs
using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Managed Extensions for C++<big><big><big><br
style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">
</big></big></big> </h1>
<div style="text-align: center;"> <big><big><big><span
style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">**DRAFT**</span></big></big></big><br>
</div>
<br>
<h2>Intended Audience:</h2>
This paper is intended for a C++ programmer who would like to know how
to wrap Gecko engine from unmanaged C++ to managed C++ .&nbsp; Author
assumes the reader is familiar with Gecko and MS Visual Studio.NET with
Managed Extensions for C++.&nbsp; <br>
<br>
<h2>Background:</h2>
<ol>
<li> Why do we go all this trouble?&nbsp; </li>
<li>When we have Gecko as ActiveX control, then why don't we use the
Runtime-Callable Wrapper (RCW) and COM-Callable Wrapper (CCW)?&nbsp; </li>
</ol>
<br>
<h2 class="dtH1">How do we do this?</h2>
There are few ways to convert the existing unmanaged code to managed
code:
<ol type="1">
<li>You can use the built-in .NET runtime interop facilities (such as
PInvoke or COM Interop)<br>
</li>
<li>You can wrap the unmanaged code using the managed extensions to
C++.</li>
<li>You can rewrite the entire code in a .NET language.</li>
</ol>
<h2 class="dtH1">What do we need?</h2>
We need <br>
<ol>
<li>.NET Framework (1.1) <br>
</li>
<li>Microsoft Visual Studio .NET (preferably 2003)</li>
<li>mozilla development environment
(http://www.mozilla.org/build/win32.html)<br>
</li>
</ol>
<h2>Terminology:</h2>
Following terms are used throughout out this document and it is
important to understand what each term means.&nbsp; <br>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Assembly</span><br>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-left: 80px;">Assembly is a building block of the
.Net Framework.&nbsp; It is the fundamental unit of deployment, version
control, reuse, activation, scoping, and security permissions.&nbsp; It
provides the Common Language Runtime (CLR) with the information it needs
to be aware of type implementations.&nbsp; It is a collection of types
and resources that are built to work together and form a logical unit of
functionality.&nbsp; <br>
</div>
<ul style="font-weight: bold;">
<li>Global Assembly Cache</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-left: 80px;">Global Assembly Cache is a machine wide
code cache that is installed whereever the CLR is installed.&nbsp; In
most cases, if you intend to share an assembly with multiple
applications, you should deploy it into the global assembly cache.<br>
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Managed code vs Unmanaged code</span><br>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-left: 80px;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Manged
code</span> requires the execution environment of the CLR.&nbsp;
Compilers emit managed code as MSIL, the intermidate language.&nbsp; The
reason for the name is that code is managed by the CLR and objects are
allocated from heaps managed by the CLR.<br>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 80px;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Unmanaged
code</span> does not use nor require the execution environment of the
Common Language Runtime (CLR).&nbsp; Unmanaged code is outside the
reach of the CLR's security system, garbage collector and other
services.</div>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: bold;">CLR</li>
<li style="font-weight: bold;">Runtime-Callable Wrapper (RCW)</li>
<li style="font-weight: bold;">COM-Callable Wrapper (CCW)</li>
<li style="font-weight: bold;">Boxing</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-left: 80px;">Boxing is a technique to convert a
value type to a __gc object by using the __box<br>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">Int32 i = 42;<br>
__box Int32* b = __box(i);<br>
</div>
</div>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: bold;">UnBoxing</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-left: 80px;">UnBoxing (dereferencing) is a technique
to convert a boxed object to value type by casting.<br>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">Color red;<br>
Object* obj = Enum::Parse(__typeof(Color), S"red");<br>
red = *static_cast&lt;__box Color*&gt;(obj);<br>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: bold;">Managed Objects</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-left: 80px;">Managed Object is an instance of a
class which is created in the heap and managed by the garbage collector
by using the <span style="font-style: italic;">__gc</span>
modifier.&nbsp; <br>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-style: italic;">__gc</span>
class Point<br>
{<br>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 80px;">public:<br>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 120px;"> int x;<br>
int y;<br>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;"> };<br>
</div>
</div>
<ul style="font-weight: bold;">
<li>Value Types</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-left: 80px;">Value Types ar typically small, short
lived objects and they are usually created on the stack. In managed C++,
the value types are defined by using <span style="font-style: italic;">__value</span>
modifier.&nbsp; <br>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-style: italic;">__value</span>
class Point<br>
{<br>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 80px;">public:<br>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 120px;"> int x;<br>
int y;<br>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;"> };<br>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<h2>Necessary Steps:</h2>
<ul>
</ul>
<br>
<h2>Gecko APIs</h2>
We will be exposing list of Gecko APIs<br>
<ul>
<li>nsresult NS_InitEmbedding(nsILocalFile *aMozBinDirectory,
nsIDirectoryServiceProvider *aAppFileLocProvider);<br>
</li>
<li>nsresult NS_TermEmbedding();</li>
<li>...<br>
</li>
</ul>
<br>
<h2>Coding Techniques:</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<h3>Using managed object in unmanaged code</h3>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">Managed pointers are managed by the
garbage collector so that when copies are made, the gc knows that
references are created.&nbsp; When a pointer is passed to native code,
the gc cannot track its usage and so cannot determine any change in
object reference.&nbsp;&nbsp; Furthermore, if a garbage collection
occures, the object can be moved in memory, so the gc changes all
managed pointers so that they point to the new location.&nbsp; Because
the gc doesn't have access to the pointers passed to native code
(unmanaged code), potentially a pointer used in native code could
suddenly become invalid.&nbsp; Use a pinned pointer which tells gc not
to move the memory.<br>
<div style="margin-left: 80px;">
<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" border="1"
style="text-align: left; width: 100%;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">//Using pinning<br>
#progma unmanaged<br>
void print(int *p)<br>
{<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; printf("%ld\n", *p);<br>
}<br>
<br>
#progma managed<br>
_gc struct Test {<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; int i;<br>
};<br>
<br>
void main()<br>
{<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Test * t = new Test;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; int __pin* p = &amp;t-&gt;i;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; print(p);<br>
}<br>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><br>
</div>
<ul>
<li>
<h3>Using unmanaged object in managed code</h3>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-left: 120px;">
<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" border="1"
style="text-align: left; width: 100%;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><span class="clsCap">//Using
GCHandle</span> <br>
<pre>#using &lt;mscorlib.dll&gt;<br><br>using namespace System;<br>using namespace System::Runtime::InteropServices;<br><br>#pragma managed<br>class AppDomainWrapper<br>{<br>private:<br> int m_handle;<br>public:<br> AppDomainWrapper() {<br> AppDomain* d = AppDomain::Current;<br> m_handle = (GCHandle::op_Explicit(GCHandle::Alloc(d))).ToInt32();<br> }<br> ~AppDomainWrapper() {<br> (GCHandle::op_Explicit(m_handle)).Free();<br> }<br> // more functions here...<br> void PrintBaseDir() {<br> AppDomain* domain = __try_cast&lt;AppDomain*&gt;(<br> (GCHandle::op_Explicit(m_handle)).Target);<br> Console::WriteLine ( S"AppDomain Base Directory: {0}",<br> domain-&gt;BaseDirectory );<br> }<br>};<br><br>#pragma unmanaged<br>int main() {<br> AppDomainWrapper w; <br> w.PrintBaseDir();<br> return 0; <br>}</pre>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><span class="clsCap">//Using
gcroot</span> <br>
<pre>#using &lt;mscorlib.dll&gt;<br>#include &lt;gcroot.h&gt;<br><br>using namespace System;<br>using namespace System::Runtime::InteropServices;<br><br>#pragma managed<br>class AppDomainWrapper<br>{<br>private:<br> gcroot&lt;AppDomain*&gt; m_domain;<br>public:<br> AppDomainWrapper() {<br> m_domain = AppDomain::CurrentDomain;<br> }<br> ~AppDomainWrapper() {<br> }<br> // more functions here...<br> void PrintBaseDir() {<br> Console::WriteLine ( S"AppDomain Base Directory: {0}",<br> m_domain-&gt;BaseDirectory );<br> }<br>};<br><br>#pragma unmanaged<br>int main() {<br> AppDomainWrapper w; <br> w.PrintBaseDir();<br> return 0; <br><br><br><br>}</pre>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<span class="clsFigure"></span><span class="clsCap"></span> </div>
<h2>Useful Tools:</h2>
<ul>
<li>Viewing Assembly Contents</li>
<ul>
<li>MSIL Disassembler (ildasm.exe)<br>
</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>TLBIMP.exe</li>
<li>TLBEXP.exe</li>
<li>REGASM.exe</li>
<li>AXIMP.exe</li>
<li>REGSVCS.exe</li>
</ul>
<br>
<h2 class="dtH1">References<br>
</h2>
<ul>
<li>Visual Studio .NET
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vsintro7/html/vsstartpage.asp)<br>
</li>
<li>Managed Extensions for C++ programming (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vcmex/html/vcconmcoverview.asp)</li>
<li>Managed Extensions for C++ specifications
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vcmxspec/html/vcManagedExtensionsSpec_Start.asp)<br>
</li>
</ul>
<h2><br>
</h2>
<h2>History:</h2>
Draft 0.1 : April 9 2003&nbsp; Roy Yokoyama<br>
<br>
<br>
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