New Issue: 'c_fn_ptr' needs improvements

17994, "bradcray", "'c_fn_ptr' needs improvements", "2021-06-28T18:10:13Z"

The c_fn_ptr type is currently a bit odd:

  • it's injected by the Chapel compiler into every program rather than only being available through the CPtr module
  • it doesn't permit calls to made to such function pointers from within Chapel code
  • it doesn't have a means to specify argument types or return types (which is probably one of the reasons for the previous bullet)

I believe that these weaknesses are reasons that it is currently only documented in a technical note and not in the language specification / libraries. We should address these, and consider c_fn_ptr unstable until such time as we do.