Guidelines for C-level function references

[Jay-Damodaran]

I'm writing a set of C functions that extends ulab functionality and references other ulab functions. One example in my case is that I would like to use compare_maximum and compare_where which are defined in numpy/compare.c. The problem is these are static functions that aren't declared in the header numpy/compare.h, so when I include this into my c file, I am getting an implicit function declaration error.

What is the recommended approach to utilizing other ulab functions at the c level? Should I just copy that code into my script, in which case there would be duplicated code that takes up more space, or should I modify the original ulab code to make those functions non-static and add them to the header file?

[v923z]

Do I understand correctly that the only issue here is that those functions are declared as static, so you can't call them from outside? Would it help you, if the function declaration was global?

I think I wouldn't do that by default, but we could have a preprocessor directive that you could switch on, and that would then change the declaration of the function. This would leave everyone else alone, but if you know what you're doing, you could call the function from outside without having to copy anything.

[Jay-Damodaran]

Yes, as far as I know, the main issue here is that the functions aren't global. The conditional preprocessor directive would be helpful. There are some cases like trying to use np.random.Generator.random from the numpy/random/random.c, where I am not entirely sure how to call this at the C level. Perhaps, it would be easier to just use rand and time from C stdlib.h and time.h for random number generation although rand doesn't use PCG.

I was more so curious as to what the typical approach used by you and other contributors is when you are adding code. Do you typically just copy the code into the new c file or is there some other approach you use? What are the potential consequences that I may face from making some of your existing ulab functions global in scope?