I'm trying to use cairo bindings (Go package), which defines a wrapper structure with a C type in it, with a C function, but can't make it work.
The cairo package defines a Context:
package cairo
...
type Context struct {
Ptr *C.cairo_t
}
...
Then, from the main package, I want to use its pointer:
package main
...
cr := cairo.Create(surf.Surface)
layout := C.pango_cairo_create_layout(cr.Ptr)
...
The C.pango_cairo_create_layout accepts *C.cairo_t, which is what cr.Ptr should be. However, the go compiler doesn't agree:
./main.go:114:157: cannot use cr.Ptr (type *cairo._Ctype_struct__cairo) as type *_Ctype_struct__cairo in argument to func literal
As can be seen, cr.Ptr is of type *cairo.C.cairo_t and not *C.cairo_t, that is, the package namespace is a part of the type.
I've found https://github.com/golang/go/issues/13467, which talks about a workaround using the combination of the reflect package and unsafe.Pointer. However, I can't make it work.
How do I correctly "bend" this so it compiles and works?
For those interested, I've figured it out.
package main
...
cr := cairo.Create(surf.Surface)
ptr := (*C.cairo_t)(unsafe.Pointer(reflect.ValueOf(cr.Ptr).Pointer()))
layout := C.pango_cairo_create_layout(ptr)
...
Maybe it can be done more simply, but this works.