Introduction to rbXPCOM

Sample Code

rbXPCOM allows a Ruby programmer both use and implement XPCOM object just like normal Ruby object. Following sample code illustrate 'use' part.

Suppose "@ruby/test/Test;1" supports following interface.

interface rbIXPCOMTest : nsISupports {
  const PRUint16 CONST = 1;
  string EchoString( in string s );
};
     

require 'xpcom'
  
test = XPCOM.instance("@ruby/test/Test;1", "rbIXPCOMTest")

p XPCOM::rbIXPCOMTest::CONST        #=> 1

p test.EchoString("hello world")    #=> "hello world"
     

Features

Currently, following features are available.

• use and implement XPCOM objects by Ruby

• load XPCOM objects into Ruby interpretter

• load XPCOM objects implemented by Ruby into non-Ruby application

rbXPCOM still lacks following major features.

• ability to run in a multithread application

• security mechanism