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CookBookA - Dean's Extension-Building Cookbook, part A.

This is a collection of recipes for mixing C and Perl objects, methods, and
classes.  The reader should be familiar with the XS language and with the
process of creating new extensions.  The XS language is described in
L<perlxs>, and L<perlxstut> is a tutorial describing how to create new
extensions.  The reader should also be familiar with Perl's internal data
types and API macros and functions (i.e.  SV, HV, AV, SvIV, newRV) as
described in L<perlguts> and L<perlcall>.

The topics covered are:

=head2 Linking a C struct to a blessed or unblessed Perl object.
=head2 Creating and destroying objects.
=head2 Creating a Perl subclass of a C superclass.
=head2 Creating a C subclass of a Perl superclass.
=head2 Sharing a variable between Perl and C.
=head2 Using a Perl hash object in C.
=head2 Using a Perl array object in C.
=head2 Using a C array in Perl.
=head2 Illuminating an opaque C object for Perl.
=head2 Illuminating an opaque Perl object for C.
=head2 Sending messages to Perl objects from C.
=head2 Storing a Perl object inside a C object.
=head2 Creating double-typed Perl variables.
=head2 Sharing a char** type between C and Perl
=head2 Linking Perl and C++ classes and objects.
=head2 Knowing your typemap.

Consult the CookBookA.pod document in this package for more information.

Some of these examples rely on my perlobject.map typemap, which is included
in the package and can also be found on CPAN in the same place you found
this package.

If you are going to do datatype conversions between C and Perl, which is
what XS programming is all about, then you would be doing yourself a favor
to install Devel::Peek and to learn how to use its Dump() function.  The
DevelPeek.pod document in this package is a preliminary manpage/tutorial.

For other examples of extension-building to let Perl manipulate C structures
and C++ objects consult the CookBookB package, which is part B of this
Extension-Building CookBook series.  CookBookB can be found on CPAN in the
same place you found this CookBookA package.

Dean Roehrich
apr 30,96