I am trying to simplify some binding to C but I am not sure if this is even possible, what I am trying to do is pass an array and expect to receive in a function so an object can be constructed by the type specified in the parameter or by ccall calling the correct convert function and initialize a struct object.
Previous code, the bindings are full of Vector3(v...) and Color(c...), is there a way to avoid this be automatic handling?
drawline(startPos, endPos, color) = ccall((:DrawLine3D, "my_lib"), Cvoid, (Vector3,Vector3,Color), Vector3(startPos...), Vector3(endPos...), Color(color...))
drawpoint([10,10,10],[100,100,100],[155,155,155,255]) # call example
Is it possible to reduce the code with something like this?:
struct Vector3
x::Cfloat
y::Cfloat
z::Cfloat
Vector3((x,y,z))=new(x,y,z)
end
#first attempt
#trying to call the Vector3 constructor without calling explicitly
drawpoint(startpos::Vector3,endpos::Vector3,color::Color) = ccall((:DrawPoint3D, "my_lib"), Cvoid, (Vector3,Vector3,Color), startpos,endpos,color)
#second attempt (should be the simplest way to go)
#trying to receive arrays so ccall can convert from list or tuple to Struct object
drawpoint(startpos,endpos,color) = ccall((:DrawPoint3D, "my_lib"), Cvoid, (Vector3,Vector3,Color), startpos,endpos,color)
Is something like this even possible in Julia?
You just need to define the appropriate conversion. ccall will call this for you. I think this should do it:
Base.convert(::Type{Vector3}, x::AbstractVector) = Vector3(x)
You'll probably want to add some length checks and such, and I'd probably recommend using tuples or StaticArrays instead of Vectors for efficiency's sake.
Why is this not possible?
int c = 0;
++c++;
Or in PHP:
$c = 0;
++$c++;
I would expect it to increment the variable c by 2, or perhaps do something weird, but instead it gives an error while compiling. I've tried to come up with a reason but got nothing really... My reasoning was this:
The compiler reads ++
It reads the variable
It does whatever it does to make the value of the variable increment and then get returned when executing the application
It encounters another ++
It uses the previous variable in order to return it before incrementing the value
This is where it gets confusing: does it use the variable c, or does it try to read the value that (++c) returned? Or, since you can only do varname++ (and not 2++), does it see (++c) as a pointer and then tries to read that memory location? Whatever it does, why would it give a compile error? Or is the error preventive, because the compiler's programmer knew it wouldn't do anything useful?
It's not really that I would want to use this, and certainly not for code that is not one-time use only, but I'm just curious.
For the same reason you can't do:
c++ = 5;
It returns a value, which cannot be modified nor assigned to. That's not a runtime error, either - that's a compilation error. (Like this one.)
Returning a reference wouldn't make sense either, because then:
$a = 1;
$b = $a++; // How can it be a reference if b should be 1 and a should be 2?
This isn't necessarily language-agnostic, although I'd be a little surprised to see a language in which it was different.
In C (and hence I assume in all non-annoying languages based on C), the operator precedence means your expression is equivalent to ++(c++). Based on your step-by-step, you were expecting it to be equivalent to (++c)++, but it isn't. Postfix ++ "binds more tightly" than prefix ++.
Like everyone says, the expression c++ results in a value, not a modifiable object (an expression in C that refers to an object is called an lvalue). This is necessary because the object c no longer holds the value that the expression evaluates to -- there is no object that c++ could refer to.
In C++ (not to be confused with c++!), ++c is an lvalue. It refers to the object c, which now has the new value.
So in C++ (++c)++ is syntactically correct. It happens to have undefined behavior if c is of type int (at least, it did in C++03: C++11 made some things defined that used to be undefined and I'm not up to date on those changes).
So, if you imagine (or go ahead and invent) a C++-like language in which the operator precedence is what you expected, then you could arrange for ++c++ to be valid. Presumably it would increment c twice, and evaluate to the value in between the old and new values. This imagined language would be "annoying" in the sense that it's only subtly different from C++, which would tend to be confusing.
++c++ is also valid in C++ if c is an instance of a user-defined type that overloads both increment operators. The reason is that an rvalue of user-defined type is an object (a "temporary object"), and can be modified. But as soon as the expression has been evaluated, the temporary is destroyed and the modification is lost.
Another way to Explain this is that the ++ operator only operates on an lvalue. But when you combine them, it's parsed as either ++(c++) or (++c)++ -- in either case, the parameter to the operator outside the parentheses is an rvalue (c's value before or after the increment), not an lvalue.
I am using a script in MatLab that works perfectly fine by itself, but I need to make a function out of it.
The script read a .csv file, extract all values, start a timer, and at each tick displays the corresponding coordinates extracted from the .csv, resulting in a 3D animation of my graph.
What I would like is to give it the location of the .csv, so that it starts displaying the graphs for this csv.
Here is what I have come up with:
function handFig(fileLoc)
csv=csvread(fileLoc,1,0);
both = csv(:,2:19);
ax=axes;
set(ax,'NextPlot','replacechildren');
Dt=0.1; %sampling period in secs
k=1;
hp1=text(both(k,1),both(k,2),both(k,3),'thumb'); %get handle to dot object
hold on;
hp2=text(both(k,4),both(k,5),both(k,6),'index');
hp3=text(both(k,7),both(k,8),both(k,9),'middle');
hp4=text(both(k,10),both(k,11),both(k,12),'ring');
hp5=text(both(k,13),both(k,14),both(k,15),'pinky');
hp6=text(both(k,16),both(k,17),both(k,18),'HAND');
L1=plot3([both(k,1),both(k,16)],[both(k,2),both(k,17)],[both(k,3),both(k,18)]);
L2=plot3([both(k,4),both(k,16)],[both(k,5),both(k,17)],[both(k,6),both(k,18)]);
L3=plot3([both(k,7),both(k,16)],[both(k,8),both(k,17)],[both(k,9),both(k,18)]);
L4=plot3([both(k,10),both(k,16)],[both(k,11),both(k,17)],[both(k,12),both(k,18)]);
L5=plot3([both(k,13),both(k,16)],[both(k,14),both(k,17)],[both(k,15),both(k,18)]);
hold off;
t1=timer('TimerFcn','k=doPlot(hp1,hp2,hp3,hp4,hp5,hp6,L1,L2,L3,L4,L5,both,t1,k)','Period', Dt,'ExecutionMode','fixedRate');
start(t1);
end
And the doplot function used:
function k=doPlot(hp1,hp2,hp3,hp4,hp5,hp6,L1,L2,L3,L4,L5,pos,t1,k)
k=k+1;
if k<5000%length(pos)
set(hp1,'pos',[pos(k,1),pos(k,2),pos(k,3)]);
axis([0 255 0 255 0 255]);
set(hp2,'pos',[pos(k,4),pos(k,5),pos(k,6)]);
set(hp3,'pos',[pos(k,7),pos(k,8),pos(k,9)]);
set(hp4,'pos',[pos(k,10),pos(k,11),pos(k,12)]);
set(hp5,'pos',[pos(k,13),pos(k,14),pos(k,15)]);
set(hp6,'pos',[pos(k,16),pos(k,17),pos(k,18)]);
set(L1,'XData',[pos(k,1),pos(k,16)],'YData',[pos(k,2),pos(k,17)],'ZData',[pos(k,3),pos(k,18)]);
set(L2,'XData',[pos(k,4),pos(k,16)],'YData',[pos(k,5),pos(k,17)],'ZData',[pos(k,6),pos(k,18)]);
set(L3,'XData',[pos(k,7),pos(k,16)],'YData',[pos(k,8),pos(k,17)],'ZData',[pos(k,9),pos(k,18)]);
set(L4,'XData',[pos(k,10),pos(k,16)],'YData',[pos(k,11),pos(k,17)],'ZData',[pos(k,12),pos(k,18)]);
set(L5,'XData',[pos(k,13),pos(k,16)],'YData',[pos(k,14),pos(k,17)],'ZData',[pos(k,15),pos(k,18)]);
else
k=1;
set(hp1,'pos',[pos(k,1),pos(k,2),pos(k,3)]);
axis([0 255 0 255 0 255]);
set(hp2,'pos',[pos(k,4),pos(k,5),pos(k,6)]);
set(hp3,'pos',[pos(k,7),pos(k,8),pos(k,9)]);
set(hp4,'pos',[pos(k,10),pos(k,11),pos(k,12)]);
set(hp5,'pos',[pos(k,13),pos(k,14),pos(k,15)]);
set(hp6,'pos',[pos(k,16),pos(k,17),pos(k,18)]);
end
However, when I run handFig('fileName.csv'), I obtain the same error everytime:
??? Error while evaluating TimerFcn for timer 'timer-7'
Invalid handle object.
I figured that it might come from the function trying to create a new 'csv' and 'both' everytime, so I tried removing them, and feeding the function the data directly, without results.
What is exactly the problem? Is there a solution?
Thanks a lot!
I think it's because when you call doPlot in the timer for the first time, you pass in t1 as an argument, and it might not exist the first time.
Does doPlot need t1 at all? I'd suggest modifying it so it's not used, and then your call to:
t1=timer('TimerFcn','k=doPlot(hp1,hp2,hp3,hp4,hp5,hp6,L1,L2,L3,L4,L5,both,k)','Period', Dt,'ExecutionMode','fixedRate');
Note the missing t1 in the doPlot call.
Either that, or initialise your t1 before you create the timer so it has some value to pass in.
Update (as an aside, can you use pause(Dct) in a loop instead? seems easier)
Actually, now I think it's a problem of scope.
It took a bit of digging to get to this, but looking at the Matlab documentation for function callbacks, it says:
When MATLAB evaluates function handles, the same variables are in scope as when the function handle was created. (In contrast, callbacks specified as strings are evaluated in the base workspace.)
You currently give your TimerFcn argument as a string, so k=doPlot(...) is evaluated in the base workspace. If you were to go to the matlab prompt, run handFig, and then type h1, you'd get an error because h1 is not available in the global workspace -- it's hidden inside handFig.
That's the problem you're running into.
However, the workaround is to specify your function as a function handle rather than a string (it says function handles are evaluated in the scope in which they are created, ie within handFig).
Function handles to TimerFcn have to have two arguments obj and event (see Creating Callback Functions). Also, that help file says you have to put doPlot in its own m-file to have it not evaluate in the base Matlab workspace.
In addition to these two required input arguments, your callback
function can accept application-specific arguments. To receive these
input arguments, you must use a cell array when specifying the name of
the function as the value of a callback property. For more
information, see Specifying the Value of Callback Function Properties.
It goes through an example of what you have to do to get this working. Something like:
% create timer
t = timer('Period', Dt,'ExecutionMode','fixedRate');
% attach `k` to t so it can be accessed within doPlot
set(t,'UserData',k);
% specify TimerFcn and its extra arguments:
t.TimerFcn = { #doPlot, hp1, hp2, hp3, ...., both };
start(t)
Note -- the reason k is set in UserData is because it needs to be somehow saved and modified between calls to doPlot.
Then modify your doPlot to have two arguments at the beginning (which aren't used), and not accept the k argument. To extract k you do get(timer_obj,'UserData') from within doPlot:
function k=doPlot(timer_obj, event, hp1,hp2,hp3,.....)
k = get(timer_obj,'UserData');
.... % rest of code here.
% save back k so it's changed for next time!
set(timer_obj,'UserData',k);
I think that's on the right track - play around with it. I'd highly recommend the mathworks forums for this sort of thing too, those people are whizzes.
This thread from the mathworks forum was what got me started and might prove helpful to you.
Good luck!