SWIG
Overview
SWIG is a program that takes C++ .h and .cpp files and generates object-oriented language bindings for various languages.
Object Pascal support
The main SWIG tree does not support Delphi/Object Pascal.
Some years ago, Stefano Moratti wrote a Delphi adapter for the SWIG code which allows automatic translation of C++ libraries into Delphi mode Object Pascal. [1] His patches were not integrated into mainstream SWIG, but they have been used, e.g. to create a Delphi binding for GDAL: [2]
In 2012, FPC mailing list user d.l.i.w. adapted the original Delphi patches to the more recent SWIG 2.0.8 source but unfortunately forgot to do it in a version-controlled repository. See here: [3] and more about functionality: [4]
Unfortunately, there have been no further efforts to incorporate this into current SWIG trunk. Additionally, FPC developers have indicated that they prefer C++ binding support to being in FPC itself but no work is being done on this currently.
UPDATE 2017: There is a SWIG 3.0.11 for Delphi and Object Pascal: [5]
UPDATE 2020: The version from this repo didn't build: [6]
But the one from this repo did: [7]
I didn't test if it works or not. But I just want to share it with you.
The last commit was from 2017, it seemed he abandoned it.
Glad if it worked for you. But don't expect much from it! I think we need a paid professional fully working on it to bring it up to speed with upstream and eventually merge it to upstream.
Download source
The complete set of 2.0.8 files is uploaded at [8] and [9].
An on going effort of 3.0.11 files [10] and [11].
Recent 4.0.0 try [12]
Compiling
In the configure step, it doesn't hurt to specify
--with-delphi=yes
, to indicate you want support for Object Pascal.
On Linux, do e.g. this (run on Debian Linux; adjust paths etc as necessary:
su -
aptitude -y install build-essential yodl byacc mercurial
# build-essential has compilers
# yodl needed for man page install
# byacc apparently needed at least on Debian x86
# mercurial needed to get the swig sources from the bitbucket repository
# alternatively download, extract etc
exit #to regular user, called pascaldev on this system
cd ~
hg clone https://bitbucket.org/reiniero/swigdelphi
cd ~/swigdelphi/swig-2.0.8
# configure:
chmod ug+rx configure
# tell it to install in user's home directory; adjust as necessary
mkdir ~/swig
./configure --with-delphi=yes --prefix=/home/pascaldev/swig
#compile:
make
#install:
chmod ug+rx Tools/config/install-sh
make install
#should be installed in ~/swig now; e.g. ~/swig/bin/swig should work
~/swig/bin/swig -delphi -version
Download
Version for Delphi which cannot be compiled now: https://github.com/FMXExpress/swig-delphi
Version which can be compiled: https://github.com/lynxnake/swig
Development
It would of course be very welcome if somebody
- got the current version into main SWIG so it is more easily usable
- improve the code
Additionnally, binary releases for e.g. Linux and Windows are warmly welcome for upload to e.g. the BitBucket repository. Please contact forum user BigChimp for that.
