+Appendix A. Creating a language binding for cairo

+ While cairo is implemented and C, and has a C API, it is expected + that many users of cairo will be using it from languages other + than C. The glue that connects the core cairo library to another + language is known as a language + binding. This appendix attempts to collect together + issues that come up when creating a language bindings for cairo + and present standardized solutions to promote consistency among + the different language bindings. +

+General considerations

+ The naming of the central cairo_t type is a + special exception. The object is “a cairo context” not “a + cairo”, and names such as cairo_t rather than + cairo_context_t and + cairo_set_source() rather than + cairo_context_set_source() are simply + abbreviations to make the C API more palatable. In languages + which have object-oriented syntax, this abbreviation is much + less useful. In fact, if ‘Cairo’ is used as a namespace, then + in many languages, you'd end up with a ridiculous type name + like ‘Cairo.Cairo’. For this reason, and for inter-language + consistency all object-oriented languages should name this + type as if it were cairo_context_t. +

+ The punctuation and casing of the type names and + method names of cairo should be changed to match the general + convention of the language. In Java, where type names are written + in StudlyCaps and method names in javaCaps, cairo_font_extents_t + will become FontExtents and + cairo_set_source(cr,source), + cr.setSource(source). + As compared to changing the punctuation, and casing, much + more reluctance should be used in changing the method names + themselves. Even if get is usually omitted from getters in + your language, you shouldn't bind cairo_get_source() as + cr.source(). +