Libffi

rdf:langString Libffi

rdf:langString libffi

rdf:langString libffi

rdf:langString Anthony Green

rdf:langString libffi is a foreign function interface library. It provides a C programming language interface for calling natively compiled functions given information about the target function at run time instead of compile time. It also implements the opposite functionality: libffi can produce a pointer to a function that can accept and decode any combination of arguments defined at run time. libffi is most often used as a bridging technology between compiled and interpreted language implementations. libffi may also be used to implement plug-ins, where the plug-in's function signatures are not known at the time of creating the host application. Notable users include Python, Haskell, Dalvik, F-Script, PyPy, PyObjC, RubyCocoa, JRuby, Rubinius, MacRuby, gcj, GNU Smalltalk, IcedTea, , , Squeak, Java Native Access, Common Lisp (via CFFI), Racket, Embeddable Common Lisp and Mozilla. On Mac OS X, libffi is commonly used with , which provides programming language neutral descriptions of framework interfaces, and Nu which binds direct Objective-C access from Lisp. libffi has been widely ported and is released under a MIT license.