Name mangling

Definition

Wikipedia has a nice explanation what name mangling is.

Why?

I am sure you want to ask why and where Py++ uses name mangling? Py++ uses name mangling to create function-wrappers for overloaded and\or free functions. Consider the following use case:

void get_distance( long& );
void get_distance( double& );

In order to expose get_distance functions you have to create 2 function wrappers:

long get_distance_as_long(){...}
double get_distance_as_double(){...}

You have to give them distinguish names - C++ does not allow overloading, base on return type only. You also have to exposes them under different aliases, otherwise they will not be callable from Python:

namespace bp = boost::python;
BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE(...){
    bp::def( "get_distance_as_long", &get_distance_as_long );
    bp::def( "get_distance_as_double", &get_distance_as_double );
}

The solution

Py++ implements a solution to the problem. The generated wrapper names are unique in the whole project. However, they are pretty ugly:

• get_distance_610ef0e8a293a62001a25cd3dc59b769 for get_distance( long& ) function
• get_distance_702c7b971ac4e91b12f260ac85b36d84 for get_distance( double& ) function

The good news - they will not be changed between different runs of the code generator.

If you are exposing an overloaded function, in that case Py++ uses the ugly function-wrapper name as an alias. It is up to you to change the alias:

from pyplusplus import module_builder
from pyplusplus import function_transformers as FT

mb = module_builder.module_builder_t( ... )
get_distance_as_long = mb.mem_fun( 'get_distance', arg_types=['long &'] )
get_distance_as_long.add_transformation( FT.output(0), alias="get_distance_as_long" )

There are two main reasons for such implementation\behaviour:

1. The generated code will always compile and be correct.
2. If you forgot to give an alias to a function, your users will still be able to call the function. So no need to rush and create new release.