dev-gm / c-oop

OOP (interfaces, generics, methods, encapsulation, RAII, etc), implemented in C using clang's blocks (-fblocks)

c-oop

OOP (interfaces, generics, methods, encapsulation, RAII, etc), implemented in C using clang's blocks (-fblocks)

Prerequisites:

• zig
• clang
• libblocksruntime-dev

Constructs implemented:

• [Y] vector.h (vector_(type) with push/pop/insert/remove/begin/end/free methods and RAII support)
• [Y] iterate.h (foreach and foreach_reversed macros for iterators)
• [Y] mutex.h (mutex_(type) with lock/unlock/free methods and RAII support)

I don't know if anyone has done this, but it's pretty simple. Clang's blocks (also known as closures) can be used as members to a struct. That struct can be an interface, and classes can be implemented by creating functions that return instances of that struct. These functions can create private variables, which can only be accessed by the blocks. This allows for public/private variables (encapsulation), proper method call syntax (obect.verb()), interfaces, and classes. Generics can also be implemented using macros, which take in a type as one of their arguments and create a new interface that uses that type (rather than void *), and child classes (functions) that also use that generic type. Unfortunately, C doesn't support interchangeable use of identical anonymous structs, so you must declare the specific types that you want to use as generics with macros, and then implement them, also using a macro. _attribute_((cleanup)) can be used for RAII.

DISCLAIMER

I have run some simple benchmarks, and my vector.h, implemented using closures, is approximately 2-3 times slower than a traditional, C-style approach (without closures). If you want to use OOP, just use C++.