Obtaining a Function Pointer to an Arbitrary OpenGL Entry Point

Getting a pointer to an OpenGL entry point function is fairly straightforward from Cocoa. You can use the Dynamic Loader function NSLookupAndBindSymbol to get the address of an OpenGL entry point.

Keep in mind that getting a valid function pointer means that the entry point is exported by the OpenGL framework; it does not guarantee that a particular routine is supported and valid to call from within your application. You still need to check for OpenGL functionality on a per-renderer basis as described in Detecting Functionality.

Listing C-1 shows how to use NSLookupAndBindSymbol from within the function MyNSGLGetProcAddress. When provided a symbol name, this application-defined function returns the appropriate function pointer from the global symbol table. A detailed explanation for each numbered line of code appears following the listing.

Listing C-1  Using NSLookupAndBindSymbol to obtain a symbol for a symbol name

#import <mach-o/dyld.h>

#import <stdlib.h>

#import <string.h>

void * MyNSGLGetProcAddress (const char *name)

{

    NSSymbol symbol;

    char *symbolName;

    symbolName = malloc (strlen (name) + 2); // 1

    strcpy(symbolName + 1, name); // 2

    symbolName[0] = '_'; // 3

    symbol = NULL;

    if (NSIsSymbolNameDefined (symbolName)) // 4

        symbol = NSLookupAndBindSymbol (symbolName);

    free (symbolName); // 5

    return symbol ? NSAddressOfSymbol (symbol) : NULL; // 6

}

Here's what the code does:

1. Allocates storage for the symbol name plus an underscore character ('_'). The underscore character is part of the UNIX C symbol-mangling convention, so make sure that you provide storage for it.

2. Copies the symbol name into the string variable, starting at the second character, to leave room for prefixing the underscore character.

3. Copies the underscore character into the first character of the symbol name string.

4. Checks to make sure that the symbol name is defined, and if it is, looks up the symbol.

5. Frees the symbol name string because it is no longer needed.

6. Returns the appropriate pointer if successful, or NULL if not successful. Before using this pointer, you should make sure that is it valid.

Initializing Entry Points

Listing C-2 shows how to use the MyNSGLGetProcAddress function from Listing C-1 to obtain a few OpenGL entry points. A detailed explanation for each numbered line of code appears following the listing.

Listing C-2  Using NSGLGetProcAddress to obtain an OpenGL entry point

#import "MyNSGLGetProcAddress.h" // 1

static void InitEntryPoints (void);

static void DeallocEntryPoints (void);

// Function pointer type definitions

typedef void (*glBlendColorProcPtr)(GLclampf red,GLclampf green,

                        GLclampf blue,GLclampf alpha);

typedef void (*glBlendEquationProcPtr)(GLenum mode);

 typedef void (*glDrawRangeElementsProcPtr)(GLenum mode, GLuint start,

                GLuint end,GLsizei count,GLenum type,const GLvoid *indices);

glBlendColorProcPtr pfglBlendColor = NULL; // 2

glBlendEquationProcPtr pfglBlendEquation = NULL;

glDrawRangeElementsProcPtr pfglDrawRangeElements = NULL;

static void InitEntryPoints (void) // 3

{

    pfglBlendColor = (glBlendColorProcPtr) MyNSGLGetProcAddress

                                    ("glBlendColor");

    pfglBlendEquation = (glBlendEquationProcPtr)MyNSGLGetProcAddress

                                ("glBlendEquation");

    pfglDrawRangeElements = (glDrawRangeElementsProcPtr)MyNSGLGetProcAddress

                                ("glDrawRangeElements");

}

// -------------------------

static void DeallocEntryPoints (void) // 4

{

    pfglBlendColor = NULL;

    pfglBlendEquation = NULL;

    pfglDrawRangeElements = NULL;;

}

Here's what the code does:

1. Imports the header file that contains the MyNSGLProcAddress function from Listing C-1.

2. Declares function pointers for the functions of interest. Note that each function pointer uses the prefix pf to distinguish it from the function it points to. Although using this prefix is not a requirement, it's best to avoid using the exact function names.

3. Initializes the entry points. This function repeatedly calls the MyNSGLProcAddress function to obtain function pointers for each of the functions of interest—glBlendColor, glBlendEquation, and glDrawRangeElements.

4. Sets each of the function pointers to NULL when they are no longer needed.