Object-orientation in C

Question

What would be a set of nifty preprocessor hacks (ANSI C89/ISO C90 compatible) which enable some kind of ugly (but usable) object-orientation in C?

I am familiar with a few different object-oriented languages, so please don't respond with answers like "Learn C++!". I have read "Object-Oriented Programming With ANSI C" (beware: PDF format) and several other interesting solutions, but I'm mostly interested in yours :-)!

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See also Can you write object oriented code in C?

Answer 1

I'm a bit late to the party here but I like to avoid both macro extremes - too many or too much obfuscates code, but a couple obvious macros can make the OOP code easier to develop and read:

/*
 * OOP in C
 *
 * gcc -o oop oop.c
 */

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <math.h>

struct obj2d {
    float x;                            // object center x
    float y;                            // object center y
    float (* area)(void *);
};

#define X(obj)          (obj)->b1.x
#define Y(obj)          (obj)->b1.y
#define AREA(obj)       (obj)->b1.area(obj)

void *
_new_obj2d(int size, void * areafn)
{
    struct obj2d * x = calloc(1, size);
    x->area = areafn;
    // obj2d constructor code ...
    return x;
}

// --------------------------------------------------------

struct rectangle {
    struct obj2d b1;        // base class
    float width;
    float height;
    float rotation;
};

#define WIDTH(obj)      (obj)->width
#define HEIGHT(obj)     (obj)->height

float rectangle_area(struct rectangle * self)
{
    return self->width * self->height;
}

#define NEW_rectangle()  _new_obj2d(sizeof(struct rectangle), rectangle_area)

// --------------------------------------------------------

struct triangle {
    struct obj2d b1;
    // deliberately unfinished to test error messages
};

#define NEW_triangle()  _new_obj2d(sizeof(struct triangle), triangle_area)

// --------------------------------------------------------

struct circle {
    struct obj2d b1;
    float radius;
};

#define RADIUS(obj)     (obj)->radius

float circle_area(struct circle * self)
{
    return M_PI * self->radius * self->radius;
}

#define NEW_circle()     _new_obj2d(sizeof(struct circle), circle_area)

// --------------------------------------------------------

#define NEW(objname)            (struct objname *) NEW_##objname()


int
main(int ac, char * av[])
{
    struct rectangle * obj1 = NEW(rectangle);
    struct circle    * obj2 = NEW(circle);

    X(obj1) = 1;
    Y(obj1) = 1;

    // your decision as to which of these is clearer, but note above that
    // macros also hide the fact that a member is in the base class

    WIDTH(obj1)  = 2;
    obj1->height = 3;

    printf("obj1 position (%f,%f) area %f\n", X(obj1), Y(obj1), AREA(obj1));

    X(obj2) = 10;
    Y(obj2) = 10;
    RADIUS(obj2) = 1.5;
    printf("obj2 position (%f,%f) area %f\n", X(obj2), Y(obj2), AREA(obj2));

    // WIDTH(obj2)  = 2;                                // error: struct circle has no member named width
    // struct triangle  * obj3 = NEW(triangle);         // error: triangle_area undefined
}

I think this has a good balance, and the errors it generates (at least with default gcc 6.3 options) for some of the more likely mistakes are helpful instead of confusing. The whole point is to improve programmer productivity no?

Answer 2

C Object System (COS) sounds promising (it's still in alpha version). It tries to keep minimal the available concepts for the sake of simplicity and flexibility: uniform object oriented programming including open classes, metaclasses, property metaclasses, generics, multimethods, delegation, ownership, exceptions, contracts and closures. There is a draft paper (PDF) that describes it.

Exception in C is a C89 implementation of the TRY-CATCH-FINALLY found in other OO languages. It comes with a testsuite and some examples.

Both by Laurent Deniau, which is working a lot on OOP in C.

Answer 3

If you really thinks catefully, even standard C library use OOP - consider FILE * as an example: fopen() initializes an FILE * object, and you use it use member methods fscanf(), fprintf(), fread(), fwrite() and others, and eventually finalize it with fclose().

You can also go with the pseudo-Objective-C way which is not difficult as well:

typedef void *Class;

typedef struct __class_Foo
{
    Class isa;
    int ivar;
} Foo;

typedef struct __meta_Foo
{
    Foo *(*alloc)(void);
    Foo *(*init)(Foo *self);
    int (*ivar)(Foo *self);
    void (*setIvar)(Foo *self);
} meta_Foo;

meta_Foo *class_Foo;

void __meta_Foo_init(void) __attribute__((constructor));
void __meta_Foo_init(void)
{
    class_Foo = malloc(sizeof(meta_Foo));
    if (class_Foo)
    {
        class_Foo = {__imp_Foo_alloc, __imp_Foo_init, __imp_Foo_ivar, __imp_Foo_setIvar};
    }
}

Foo *__imp_Foo_alloc(void)
{
    Foo *foo = malloc(sizeof(Foo));
    if (foo)
    {
        memset(foo, 0, sizeof(Foo));
        foo->isa = class_Foo;
    }
    return foo;
}

Foo *__imp_Foo_init(Foo *self)
{
    if (self)
    {
        self->ivar = 42;
    }
    return self;
}
// ...

To use:

int main(void)
{
    Foo *foo = (class_Foo->init)((class_Foo->alloc)());
    printf("%d\n", (foo->isa->ivar)(foo)); // 42
    foo->isa->setIvar(foo, 60);
    printf("%d\n", (foo->isa->ivar)(foo)); // 60
    free(foo);
}

This is what may be resulted from some Objective-C code like this, if a pretty-old Objective-C-to-C translator is used:

@interface Foo : NSObject
{
    int ivar;
}
- (int)ivar;
- (void)setIvar:(int)ivar;
@end

@implementation Foo
- (id)init
{
    if (self = [super init])
    {
        ivar = 42;
    }
    return self;
}
@end

int main(void)
{
    Foo *foo = [[Foo alloc] init];
    printf("%d\n", [foo ivar]);
    [foo setIvar:60];
    printf("%d\n", [foo ivar]);
    [foo release];
}

Answer 4

Slightly off-topic, but the original C++ compiler, Cfront, compiled C++ to C and then to assembler.

Preserved here.

Answer 5

If I were going to write OOP in C I would probably go with a pseudo-Pimpl design. Instead of passing pointers to structs, you end up passing pointers to pointers to structs. This makes the content opaque and facilitates polymorphism and inheritance.

The real problem with OOP in C is what happens when variables exit scope. There are no compiler-generated destructors and that can cause issues. Macros can possibly help, but it is always going to be ugly to look at.

Answer 6

Look at http://ldeniau.web.cern.ch/ldeniau/html/oopc/oopc.html. If nothing else reading through the documentation is an enlightening experience.