It is very important for Ada 95 programs to be able to interface effectively with systems written in other languages. For example, the success of Ada 95 depends in part on its ability to cleanly and portably support interfaces to such systems as X Windows, POSIX, and commercial windows-based personal computer environments. (The portability in question is the ability to take a given Ada program or binding that interfaces with an external system, and move it to an environment with the same external system but a different Ada implementation.) To achieve this goal we have supplied three pragmas for interfacing with non-Ada software, and child packages Interfaces.C, Interfaces.COBOL, and Interfaces.Fortran which declare types, subprograms and other entities useful for interfacing with the three languages. The root package Interfaces contains declarations for hardware-specific numeric types, described in 3.3.
Experience with pragma Interface in Ada 83 has uncovered a number of issues that may interfere with developing portable Ada code that is to be linked with foreign language modules. We have therefore removed pragma Interface (though the implementation may choose still to support it for upward compatibility) and have added the three pragmas Import (effectively replacing Interface), Export and Convention which provide the following capabilities:
The following example illustrates how Ada 95 procedures can call and be called from a program written in the C language.
type XT_Callback is access procedure (Widget_Id : in out XT_Intrinsics.Widget; Closure : in X_Lib.X_Address; Call_Data : in X_Lib.X_Address); pragma Convention(C, XT_Callback); procedure XT_Add_Callback (The_Widget : in out XT_Intrinsics.Widget; Callback_Name : in String; Callback : in XT_Callback; Client_Data : in XT_Intrinsics.XT_Pointer); pragma Import(C, XT_Add_Callback, External_Name => "XtAddCallBack"); procedure My_Callback(Widget_Id : in out XT_Intrinsics.Widget; Closure : in X_Lib.X_Address; Call_Data : in X_Lib.X_Address) is separate; pragma Convention(C, My_Callback); My_Widget : XT_Intrinsics.Widget; ... XT_Add_Callback(My_Widget, "Mousedown" & ASCII.Nul, My_Callback'Access, XT_Intrinsics.Null_Data);
The pragma Convention applies to the type XT_Callback, and indicates that values of this type designate subprograms callable from programs written in C. The machine code generated for calls through the access values of the type XT_Callback will follow the conventions of the C compiler.
The pragma Import indicates that the procedure XT_Add_Callback is written with the calling conventions of a C compiler. The third parameter of the pragma specifies the external name (in this case the C name) of the subprogram.
The pragma Convention also applies to My_Callback. This informs the compiler that the procedure is written in Ada but is intended to be called from a C program, which may affect how it will reference its parameters.
My_Callback'Access will yield a value compatible with XT_Callback, because the same calling convention is specified for both. Note that it is unnecessary to apply the pragma Export to My_Callback since, although called from the C program, it is called indirectly through the access to subprogram value and the Ada identifier itself is not required externally.
The pragmas Import and Export may omit the external name if it is the same as the Ada identifier. A fourth parameter may be used to specify the link name if necessary.
The pragmas Import and Export may also be applied to objects. In particular a deferred constant can be completed by a pragma Import; this specifies that the object is defined externally to the Ada program. Similarly a pragma Export can be used to indicate that an object is used externally.
A programmer would typically use pragma Export in situations where the main subprogram is written in the external language. This raises some semantic issues, because correct execution of the exported Ada subprogram might depend on having certain Ada library units elaborated before the subprogram is invoked. For example, the subprogram might reference library package data objects that are initialized by the package body; or the subprogram might execute a construct (such as an allocator) that requires the Ada run-time system to have been elaborated. To handle such situations, Ada 95 advises the implementation [RM95 B.1(39)] to supply subprograms with link names "adainit" and "adafinal". The adainit subprogram contains elaboration code for the Ada library units, and adafinal contains any needed finalization code (such as finalization of the environment task). Thus a main subprogram written in the external language should call adainit before the first call to an Ada subprogram, and adafinal after the last.
The C interface package, Interfaces.C, supports importing C functions into Ada, and exporting Ada subprograms to C. Since many bindings and other external systems are written in C, one of the more important objectives of Ada 95 is to ease the job of having Ada code work with such software.
Part of the issue in arranging an interface to a foreign language, of particular importance with C, is to allow an Ada subprogram to be called from code written in the foreign language. This is handled in Ada 95 through a combination of pragma Convention and access to subprogram types, as illustrated above.
Further child packages Interfaces.C.Strings and Interfaces.C.Pointers provide specialized functionality for dealing with C strings and pointers.
C's predefined integer, floating point, and character types are modelled directly in Interfaces.C. The Ada implementation is responsible for defining the Ada types such that they have the same representation as the corresponding C types in the supported C implementation.
Since C parameters are passed copy-in, interfacing to a C function taking a scalar parameter is straightforward. The program declares an Ada subprogram with an in parameter of the corresponding type.
A C function may have a t* parameter, where t is a scalar type, and where the caller is supposed to pass a reference to a scalar. If such a function is imported, then the corresponding Ada subprogram would declare either an access T parameter, or an in out T parameter.
C's string representation and manipulation come in several varieties, and we have tried to define the interface package so as to support the most typical applications. The Interfaces.C package provides an implementation-defined character type, char, designed to model the C run- time character type. This may or may not be the same as Ada's type Character; thus the package provides mappings between the types char and Character. Unlike COBOL, the mappings between the C and Ada character types do not need to be dynamically modifiable; hence they are captured by functions. In the common case where the character set is the same in C and Ada, the implementation should define the conversion functions through unchecked conversions expanded inline, with thus no run-time overhead.
One important application of the C interface package is for the programmer to compose a C string and pass it to a C function. We provide several ways to accomplish this goal. One approach is for the programmer to declare an object that will hold the C array, and then pass this array to the C function. This is realized via the type char_array:
type char_array is array (size_t range <>) of char;
The programmer can declare an Ada String and convert it to a char_array (or simply declare a char_array directly), and pass the char_array as actual parameter to the C function that is expecting a char *. The implication of pragma Import on the subprogram is that the char_array will be passed by reference, with no "descriptor" for the bounds; the compiler needs to implement this in such a way that what is passed is a pointer to the first element.
The package Interfaces.C , which provides the above conversions, is Pure; this extends its applicability in distributed applications that need to interface with C code.
An alternative approach for passing strings to C functions is for the programmer to obtain a C char pointer from an Ada String (or from a char_array) by invoking an allocation function. The child package Interfaces.C.Strings provides a private type chars_ptr that corresponds to C's char *, and two allocation functions. To avoid storage leakage, we also provide a Free procedure that releases the storage that was claimed by one of these allocate functions. If one of these allocate functions is invoked from an Ada program, then it is the responsibility of the Ada program (rather than the called C function) to reclaim that storage.
It is typical for a C function that deals with strings to adopt the convention that the string is delimited by a nul character. The C interface package supports this convention. A constant nul of type char is declared, and the function Value(chars_ptr) in Interfaces.C.Strings returns a char_array up to and including the first nul in the array that the chars_ptr points to.
Some C functions that deal with strings do not assume nul termination; instead, the programmer passes an explicit length along with the pointer to the first element. This style is also supported by Interfaces.C, since objects of type char_array need not be terminated by nul.
This generic package allows two styles of usage: one in which the array is terminated by a special terminator element; and another in which the programmer needs to keep track of the length.
This package may be used to interface with a C function that takes a "*" parameter. The Pointer type emerging from an instantiation corresponds to the "*" parameter to the C function.
If the C function expects a "struct *", the Ada programmer should declare a corresponding simple record type and apply pragma Convention to this type. The Ada compiler will pass a reference to the record as the argument to the C function. Of course, it is not realistic to expect that any Ada record could be passed as a C struct; [RM95, B.1] allows restrictions so that only a "C-eligible" record type T need be supported for pragma Convention(C, T). For example, records with discriminants or dynamically-sized components need not be supported. Nevertheless, the set of types for which pragma Convention needs to be supported is sufficiently broad to cover the kinds of interfaces that arise in practice.
In the (rare) situation where the C function takes a struct by value (for example a struct with a small number of small components), the programmer can declare a C function that takes a struct * and which then passes the value of its argument to the actual C function that is needed.
The following example shows a typical use of the C interface facilities.
-- Calling the C Library Function strcpy with Interfaces.C; procedure Test is package C renames Interfaces.C; use type C.char_array; -- Call
strcpy: -- C definition of strcpy: -- char *strcpy(char *s1, const char *s2); -- This function copies the string pointed to by s2 -- (including the terminating null character) into the -- array pointed to by s1. If copying takes place -- between objects that overlap, the behavior is undefined. -- The strcpy function returns the value of s1. -- Note: since the C function's return value is of no interest, -- the Ada interface is a procedure procedure Strcpy(Target : out C.char_array; Source : in C.char_array); pragma Import(C, Strcpy, "strcpy"); Chars1: C.char_array(1 .. 20); Chars2: C.char_array(1 .. 20); begin Chars2(1 .. 6) := "qwert" & C.Nul; Strcpy(Chars1, Chars2); -- Now Chars1(1 .. 6) = "qwert" & C.Nul end Test;
The package Interfaces.COBOL allows an Ada program to pass data as parameters to COBOL programs, allows an Ada program to make use of "external" data created by COBOL programs and stored in files or databases, and allows an Ada program to convert an Ada decimal type value to or from a COBOL representation.
In order to support the calling of and passing parameters to an existing COBOL program, the interface package supplies types that can be used in an Ada program as parameters to subprograms whose bodies will be in COBOL. These types map to COBOL's alphanumeric and numeric data categories.
Several types are provided for support of alphanumeric data. Since COBOL's run-time character set is not necessarily the same as Ada's, Interfaces.COBOL declares an implementation-defined character type COBOL_Character and mappings between Character and COBOL_Character. These mappings are visible variables (rather than, say, functions or constant arrays), since in the situation where COBOL_Character is EBCDIC, the flexibility of dynamically modifying the mappings is needed. Corresponding to COBOL's alphanumeric data is the array type Alphanumeric.
Numeric data may have either a "display" or "computational" representation in COBOL. On the Ada side, the data is of a decimal fixed point type. Passing an Ada decimal data item to a COBOL program requires conversion from the Ada decimal type to some type that reflects the representation expected on the COBOL side.
Floating point representation is modelled by Ada floating point types, Floating and Long_Floating. Conversion between these types and Ada decimal types is obtained directly, since the type name serves as a conversion function.
Binary representation is modelled by an Ada integer type, Binary, and possibly other types such as Long_Binary. Conversion between, say, Binary and a decimal type is through functions from an instantiation of the generic package Decimal_Conversions. An integer conversion using say Binary as the target and an object of a decimal type as the source does not work, since there would be no way to take into account the scale implicitly associated with the decimal type.
Packed decimal representation is modelled by the Ada array type Packed_Decimal. Conversion between packed decimal and a decimal type is through functions from an instantiation of the generic package Decimal_Conversions.
Display representation for numeric data is modelled by the array type Numeric. Conversion between display representation and a decimal type is through functions from an instantiation of the generic package Decimal_Conversions. A parameter to the conversion function indicates the desired interpretation of the data (e.g., signed leading separate, etc.)
The pragma Convention(COBOL, T) may be applied to a record type T to direct the compiler to choose a COBOL-compatible representation for objects of the type.
The package Interfaces.COBOL allows the Ada programmer to deal with data from files or databases created by a COBOL program. For data that is alphanumeric, or in display or packed decimal format, the approach is the same as for passing parameters: instantiate Decimal_Conversions to obtain the needed conversion functions. For binary data, the external representation is treated as a Byte array, and an instantiation of Decimal_Conversions produces a package that declares the needed conversion functions. A parameter to the conversion function indicates the desired interpretation of the data (e.g., high- versus low-order byte first).
We had considered defining the binary conversion functions in terms of a Storage_Array rather than a Byte_Array for the "raw data". However, Storage_Array reflects the properties of the machine that is running the Ada program, whereas the external file may have been produced in a different environment. Thus it is simpler to use a model in terms of COBOL-character-sized units.
The following examples show typical uses of the COBOL interface.
with Interfaces.COBOL; procedure Test_Call is -- Calling a foreign COBOL program -- Assume that a COBOL program PROG has the following declaration -- in its LINKAGE section: -- 01 Parameter-Area -- 05 NAME PIC X(20). -- 05 SSN PIC X(9) -- 05 SALARY PIC 99999V99 USAGE COMP. -- The effect of PROG is to update SALARY based on some algorithm package COBOL renames Interfaces.COBOL; type Salary_Type is delta 0.01 digits 7; type COBOL_Record is record Name : COBOL.Numeric(1 .. 20); SSN : COBOL.Numeric(1 .. 9); Salary : COBOL.Binary; -- Assume Binary = 32 bits end record; pragma Convention(COBOL, COBOL_Record); procedure Prog(Item : in out COBOL_Record); pragma Import(COBOL, Prog, "PROG"); package Salary_Conversions is new COBOL.Decimal_Conversions(Salary_Type); Some_Salary : Salary_Type := 12_345.67; Some_Record : COBOL_Record := (Name => "Johnson, John ", SSN => "111223333", Salary => Salary_Conversions.To_Binary(Some_Salary)); begin Prog(Some_Record); ... end Test_Call; with Interfaces.COBOL; with COBOL_Sequential_IO; -- Assumed to be supplied by implementation procedure Test_External_Formats is -- Using data created by a COBOL program -- Assume that a COBOL program has created a sequential file with -- the following record structure, and that we need to -- process the records in an Ada program -- 01 EMPLOYEE-RECORD -- 05 NAME PIC X(20). -- 05 SSN PIC X(9) -- 05 SALARY PIC 99999V99 USAGE COMP. -- 05 ADJUST PIC S999V999 SIGN LEADING SEPARATE -- The COMP data is binary (32 bits), high-order byte first package COBOL renames Interfaces.COBOL; type Salary_Type is delta 0.01 digits 7 range 0.0 .. 99_999.99; type Adjustments_Type is delta 0.001 digits 6; type COBOL_Employee_Record_Type is -- External representation record Name : COBOL.Alphanumeric(1 .. 20); SSN : COBOL.Alphanumeric(1 .. 9); Salary : COBOL.Byte_Array(1 .. 4); Adjust : COBOL.Numeric(1 .. 7); -- Sign and 6 digits end record; pragma Convention(COBOL, COBOL_Employee_Record_Type); package COBOL_Employee_IO is new COBOL_Sequential_IO(COBOL_Employee_Record_Type); use COBOL_Employee_IO; COBOL_File : File_Type; type Ada_Employee_Record_Type is -- Internal representation record Name : String(1 .. 20); SSN : String(1 .. 9); Salary : Salary_Type; Adjust : Adjustments_Type; end record; COBOL_Record : COBOL_Employee_Record_Type; Ada_Record : Ada_Employee_Record_Type; package Salary_Conversions is new COBOL.Decimal_Conversions(Salary_Type); use Salary_Conversions; package Adjustments_Conversions is new COBOL.Decimal_Conversions(Adjustments_Type); use Adjustments_Conversions; begin Open(COBOL_File, Name => "Some_File"); loop Read(COBOL_File, COBOL_Record); Ada_Record.Name := To_Ada(COBOL_Record.Name); Ada_Record.SSN := To_Ada(COBOL_Record.SSN); begin Ada_Record.Salary := To_Decimal(COBOL_Record.Salary, High_Order_First); exception when Conversion_Error => ... -- Report "Invalid Salary Data" end; begin Ada_Record.Adjust := To_Decimal(COBOL_Record.Adjust, Leading_Separate); exception when Conversion_Error => ... -- Report "Invalid Adjustment Data" end; ... -- Process Ada_Record end loop; exception when End_Error => ... end Test_External_Formats;
Much mathematical software exists and continues to be written in Fortran and so there is a strong need for Ada programs to be able to interface to Fortran routines. Ada programs should be able to call Fortran subprograms, or Fortran library routines, passing parameters mapped the way Fortran would map them. Similarly, with increasing frequency, there will also be reasons for Fortran programs to call Ada subprograms as if they were written in Fortran (that is, with parameters passed in the normal way for Fortran). The Numerics Annex recommends that the facilities for interfacing to Fortran described in the annex on Interface to Other Languages be implemented if Fortran is widely supported in the target environment. Some high-performance mathematical software is also written in C, so a similar recommendation is made with regard to the facilities for interfacing to C. We discuss only the Fortran interfacing facilities here.
Interfacing to Fortran is provided by the child package Interfaces.Fortran and the convention identifier Fortran in the interfacing pragmas.
The package Interfaces.Fortran defines types having the same names as the Fortran intrinsic types (except where they would conflict with the names of Ada types predefined in Standard, in which case they are given different names) and whose representations match the default representations of those types in the target Fortran implementation. Multiple Fortran interface packages may be provided if several different implementations of Fortran are to be accommodated in the target environment; each would have an identifier denoting the corresponding implementation of Fortran. The same identifier would be used to denote that implementation in the interfacing pragmas.
Additional types may be added to a Fortran interface package as appropriate. For example, the package for an implementation of Fortran 77 might add declarations for Integer_Star_2, Integer_Star_4, Logical_Star_1, Logical_Star_4, and so on, while one for an implementation of Fortran 90 might add declarations for Integer_Kind_0, Integer_Kind_1, Real_Kind_0, Real_Kind_1, and so forth.
Use of the types defined in a Fortran interface package suffices when the application only requires scalar objects to be passed between Ada and Fortran subprograms. The Convention pragma can be used to indicate that a multidimensional array is to be mapped in Fortran's column-major order, or that a record object declared in a library subprogram or package is to be mapped the way Fortran would map a common block (the Import or Export pragma would also be specified for the object), or that a record type is to be mapped the way Fortran 90 would map a corresponding type (called a "derived type" in Fortran 90). Compatibility with Fortran 90's pointer types is provided by applying the Convention pragma to appropriate access types.
R4.1-B(2) - Pragma Interfaceis met by the introduction of the pragmas Convention, Import and Export for the better control of interfaces to programs in other languages.
The study topic
S10.1-A(2) - Specification of Decimal Representationis met in part by the generic package Interfaces.COBOL.Decimal_Conversions.
The study topic
S10.2-A(1) - Alternate Character Set Supportis satisfied in part by the facilities provided in Interfaces.COBOL.Decimal_Conversions.
The study topic
S10.3-A(1) - Interfacing with Data Base Systemsis satisfied in part by the types and conversions in the package Interfaces.COBOL.
The study topic
S11.2-A(1) - Array Representationis met by the pragma Convention with a Fortran convention identifier, and more generally by the package Interfaces.Fortran.