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Diffstat (limited to 'devel/libffi/DESCR')
| -rw-r--r-- | devel/libffi/DESCR | 18 |
1 files changed, 18 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/devel/libffi/DESCR b/devel/libffi/DESCR new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..96a2314ed64 --- /dev/null +++ b/devel/libffi/DESCR @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +The libffi library provides a portable, high level programming +interface to various calling conventions. This allows a programmer to +call any function specified by a call interface description at +run-time. + +Some programs may not know at the time of compilation what arguments +are to be passed to a function. For instance, an interpreter may be +told at run-time about the number and types of arguments used to call +a given function. Libffi can be used in such programs to provide a +bridge from the interpreter program to compiled code. + +Ffi stands for Foreign Function Interface. A foreign function +interface is the popular name for the interface that allows code +written in one language to call code written in another language. The +libffi library really only provides the lowest, machine dependent +layer of a fully featured foreign function interface. A layer must +exist above libffi that handles type conversions for values passed +between the two languages. |