Add example of how we can ask C++ nicely to give us a Python object i…

CMakeLists.txt

@@ -232,4 +232,11 @@ if(BUILD_RUBY_BINDINGS AND BUILD_PYTHON_BINDINGS)
     COMMAND ${Ruby_EXECUTABLE} test_pycall_workaround.rb
   )
 
+  add_test(
+    NAME test_pycall_use_cpp_to_convert_pointers
+    WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/ruby
+    COMMAND ${Ruby_EXECUTABLE} test_pycall_use_cpp_to_convert_pointers.rb
+  )
+
+
 endif()

Person.hpp

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 
 #include <string>
 #include <string_view>
+#include <iostream>
 
 namespace Test {
 
@@ -23,6 +24,25 @@ std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream&, const Test::Person&);
 
 // A free-standing function taking an object as argument
 std::string personName(const Person& person);
+inline void setName(Person &p, const std::string &newname) {
+  p.setName(newname);
+}
+
+// get an integral representation of the pointer that is this Person
+inline long long toInt(Person &p) {
+  std::clog << "original pointer: " << &p << '\n';
+  const auto result = reinterpret_cast<long long>(&p);
+  std::clog << "toInt from C++ " << result << '\n';
+  return result;
+}
+
+// take the integer from toInt and reinterpret_cast it back into a Person *, then return that as a reference
+inline Person &fromInt(long long i) {
+  auto *ptr = reinterpret_cast<Person *>(i);
+  std::clog << "Reclaimed pointer: " << ptr << '\n';
+  return *ptr;
+}
+
 
 } // Namespace Test
 

ruby/test_pycall_use_cpp_to_convert_pointers.rb

@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+ruby_lib_path = File.expand_path(File.join(__dir__, '../build/Products/ruby/mylib.so'))
+
+if !File.exist?(ruby_lib_path)
+  puts "Error, this assumes you already built the project in <root>/build"
+  exit 1
+end
+
+require ruby_lib_path
+
+
+puts "==================  RUBY SIDE  ======================"
+ruby_p = Mylib::Person.new("John")
+puts "ruby_p=#{ruby_p}"
+puts "Mylib::personName(ruby_p)= #{Mylib::personName(ruby_p)}"
+
+
+puts "\n\n"
+
+puts "==================  PYTHON SIDE  ======================"
+
+require 'pycall/import'
+include PyCall::Import
+
+
+python_lib_path = File.expand_path(File.join(__dir__, '../build/Products/python/mylib.py'))
+if !File.exist?(python_lib_path)
+  puts "Error, this assumes you already built the Python project in <root>/build"
+  exit 1
+end
+
+sys = PyCall.import_module('sys')
+sys.path.insert(0, "#{File.dirname(python_lib_path)}")
+
+pyimport 'mylib', as: 'mylib_python'
+python_p = mylib_python.Person.new("John")
+puts "python_p=#{python_p}"
+puts "mylib_python.personName(python_p)= #{mylib_python.personName(python_p)}"
+
+
+puts "\n\n"
+
+puts "==================  PASSING RUBY TO PYTHON  ======================"
+
+# We're going to use C++ to marshal between a ruby object and a python object
+# We take the already created ruby_p object and get back an int.
+#
+# What is the int (actually unsigned long long)? it's just the underlying pointer.
+# Why an int? Because we need a type that Python, Ruby, and PyCall all recognize
+#
+# Next we take that int and say "please give me a Python Person object from this"
+#
+# What does fromInt do? It simply reinterpret_casts the integral value back into a Person &
+# 
+# Note: it is critical that we call toInt from Ruby (because it's a Ruby `Person`)
+#  and critical that we call fromInt from Python (because we want a Python `Person`)
+#
+# **** Very Important: there are *all kinds of ways* this can go wrong. we need to provide a 
+# handy wrapper in ruby that gets a python object back and not directly tell the users
+# of either library about these fromInt/toInt functions
+
+python_p2 = mylib_python.fromInt(Mylib::toInt(ruby_p))
+
+# Now ruby_p is still the same object
+ruby_name = ruby_p.getName()
+puts "ruby_name=#{ruby_name}"
+
+# And python_p2 is a reference to the ruby_p object.
+mylib_python.personName(python_p2)
+
+# We verify this reference relationship asking Python to update the name
+mylib_python.setName(python_p2, "Bob")
+
+# Then verifying that it's the name we now expect
+puts "Ruby name snould now be 'Bob' also: #{ruby_p.getName()}"
+
+
+
+