Class: ExternalLong

• Inheritance
• Description
• Class protocol
  • instance creation
• Instance protocol
  • accessing
  • printing & storing

Inheritance:

   Object
   |
   +--Collection
      |
      +--SequenceableCollection
         |
         +--ArrayedCollection
            |
            +--UninterpretedBytes
               |
               +--ExternalBytes
                  |
                  +--ExternalLong

Package:

stx:libbasic2

Category:

System-Support

Version:

rev: 1.18 date: 2018/05/11 07:56:58

user: cg

file: ExternalLong.st directory: libbasic2

module: stx stc-classLibrary: libbasic2

Description:

mostly added for odbc, which uses instances of me as container in which values
(pointers) are returned. 
The name is very misleading: it should be ExternalPointer,
because on machines where sizeof(long) != sizeof(void *), that makes a difference.
However, over time, others started to use this class, 
and renaming it would break some code.

Class protocol:

 new

allocate some memory usable for data;
the memory is not controlled by the garbage collector.
Return a corresponding ExternalBytes object or raise MallocFailure (if malloc fails).

Use this, if you have to pass a block of bytes to some
external destination (such as a C function) which does not copy the
data, but instead keeps a reference to it. For example, many functions
which expect strings simply keep a ref to the passed string - for those,
an ST/X string-pointer is not the right thing to pass, since ST/X objects
may change their address.

DANGER ALERT: the memory is NOT automatically freed until it is either
MANUALLY freed (see #free) or the returned externalBytes object
is unprotected or the classes releaseAllMemory method is called.

usage example(s):

ExternalLong new

 unprotectedNew

allocate some memory usable for data;
the memory is under the control of the garbage collector.
Return a corresponding ExternalBytes object or raise MallocFailure (if malloc fails).

DANGER ALERT: the memory block as allocated will be automatically freed
as soon as the reference to the returned externalBytes object
is gone (by the next garbage collect).
If the memory has been passed to a C-function which
remembers this pointer, bad things may happen ....

Instance protocol:

 asBoolean

 asExternalBytes

(ExternalLong new value:10) asExternalBytes
(ExternalLong new value:0) asExternalBytes

 asInteger

warning: retrieves a signed integer with the size of the native machine's
pointer (i.e. either 32 or 64bit)

usage example(s):

ExternalLong new value:10 (ExternalLong new value:16rFFFFFF) asInteger

 asNullStatus

cg: whoever added this here should move it to the sql package

 asPointer

fetch my cell's pointer value
(use this if you passed me to a C function as out parameter, to fetch the returned value)

usage example(s):

(ExternalLong new value:10) asPointer

 asUnsignedInteger

warning: retrieves an integer with the size of the native machine's
pointer (i.e. either 32 or 64bit)

usage example(s):

(ExternalLong new value:10) asUnsignedInteger

 boolean: bool

 value

(ExternalLong new value:10) value

 value: anInteger

self doubleWordAt:1 put:anInteger

 printOn: aStream