### C++ wrappers for the NAG C Library

Motivation

Occasionally, we receive requests to make the NAG C Library easier to call from C++. In the past, we found it difficult to build something that would work across all of the code our C++ users write. With the advent of the C++11 standard, many of the key features of the widely used Boost library have been incorporated into the STL, and finally provide a standardized way to address many of the difficulties we've encountered (the code we describe here works with Visual Studios 2010 and later, as well as several different versions of the Intel compiler and gcc).

We have created example wrappers that can serve as templates for creating C++ wrappers around NAG functions. Specifically, the examples now allow the user to:

1) Pass function pointers, functors, class member functions and lamda functions as callbacks to the NAG library.
2) Use raw pointers, smart pointers, STL containers or boost containers to store data and pass these to the NAG library.

A note: these are NOT a C++ interface, but merely wrappers around the C Library.

Inside the Wrappers

Let's take a look at the protoype for one function. Here is the new signature for a NAG minimization routine:

void e04abcpp(const std::function<void(double,double*,NagComm*)> &callback, double e1, double e2, double *a, double *b, Integer max_fun, double *x, double *f, NagComm *user, NagError *error);

There are two differences from the NAG C routine; the callback function and the NagComm class (which we will discuss in a bit). Using the above signature, the NAG Library can be called via a function, a pointer to a function, a function object with a common interface, or a class member function. For example, the user could have the following NAG calls:

e04abcpp(MyFunctor(), e1, e2, &a, &b, max_fun, &x, &f, &comm, NULL);
e04abcpp([&](double x,double*fc,NagComm*comm) {
return myclass.myFunc(x,fc,comm);
}, e1, e2, &a, &b, max_fun, &x, &f, &comm, NULL);

Here, the MyFunctor and myclass.myFunc are the callbacks that return values of our objective function. In order to pass these to the C Library, we need a structure to evaluate and store them. The natural way to do this is to extend the NAG Communication class. Since we dont want a new NAG Comm class affecting the underlying Library, we create the first member to be the old comm structure (a pointer to a structure can be treated as as a pointer to the first member of the structure). We can then place our functional and new callback inside this structure:

class NagComm  // New Comm Class
{
Nag_Comm comm;   // Old Comm Class
friend void e04abcpp(const std::function<void(double,double*,NagComm*)> &callback, double e1, double e2, double *a, double *b, Integer max_fun, double *x, double *f, NagComm *user, NagError *error);

public:
void * puser;
private:
// A pointer to the C++11 std::function object
const std::function<void(double,double*,NagComm*)> * callbackCPP11;

static void NAG_CALL e04abDelegateCPP11(double xc, double *fc, Nag_Comm *comm) {
NagComm * user = (NagComm*)comm;
assert(user->callbackCPP11);
// Call the function polymorphically
(* (user->callbackCPP11) )(xc, fc, user);
}

public:
NagComm() {
puser = NULL;
callbackCPP11 = NULL;
}
};

Once we have the new Comm class, we can make the cpp wrapper function:

void e04abcpp(const std::function<void(double,double*,NagComm*)> &callback, double e1, double e2, double *a, double *b, Integer max_fun, double *x, double *f, NagComm *user, NagError *error);
{
// This is the only place where NagUser::callbackCPP11 is assigned
user->callbackCPP11 = &callback;
e04abc(NagComm::e04abDelegateCPP11, e1, e2, a, b, max_fun, x, f, (Nag_Comm*)user, error);
}

Smart Pointers/Containers

Want to pass different sets of pointers and containers into NAG routines? These are easily handled as well, for example in the follow wrapper to g01amc:

template<typename RV, typename Q, typename QV>
void g01amcpp(Integer n, RV && rv, Integer nq, Q && q, QV && qv, NagError *error)

Users can call the function using STL containers, boost types or smart pointers:

double rv[n]={.5, .729, .861, .44, .791, .001, .062, .912, .27, .141, .32, .133, .654,
.285, .553, .438, .316, .696, .718, .293, .704, .029};
std::vector<double> q={0.0, .25, .73, .9, 1.0};
std::unique_ptr<double[]> qv(new double[nq]);
g01amcpp(n, rv, nq, q, qv, NULL);

The g01amcpp wrapper is defined as follows:

template<typename RV, typename Q, typename QV>
void g01amcpp(Integer n, RV && rv, Integer nq, Q && q, QV && qv, NagError *error)
{
// Get primitive pointers from input types.
double * p_rv = nagprivate::getPtr(rv);
const double * p_q = nagprivate::getPtr(q);
double * p_qv = nagprivate::getPtr(qv);

g01amc(n, p_rv, nq, p_q, p_qv, error);
}

A different template parameter for each array argument means different container/smart pointer classes can be used for each argument. Inside the wrapper the function nagprivate::getPtr is called to return the address of the first element in each array. This function uses the auto/decltype feature which has a new meaning in C++11:

namespace nagprivate {
template<typename T> auto getPtr(T & p) -> decltype( &p[0] )
{
return &(p[0]);
}
}

Note: the wrapper above assumes that the pointer/container classes implement operator[] and use contiguous arrays for internal storage. The wrapper will most likely not work for things such as linked lists.

Code Availability

We have created some example templates and more will available over time so key an eye on the NAG and C website and the bottom of this blog for updates. The examples are tested and work with VS10, g++ 4.7, and several versions of the Intel compilers. The wrappers are available in source form and can be compiled at the command line by:

Windows:
$cl -EHsc /MT -I"C:\Program Files\NAG\CL23\clw6i23dal"\include e04ab.cpp /link /LIBPATH:"C:\Program Files\NAG\CL23\clw6i23dal"\lib "C:\Program Files\NAG\CL23\clw6i23dal"\lib\nagc_nag_MT.lib user32.lib Linux:$ g++ -std=c++11 e04ab.cpp -I/opt/NAG/cll6a23dgl/include/ /opt/NAG/cll6a23dgl/lib/libnagc_nag.a -lpthread -lm -o e04ab.exe

Feedback

We would be interested in hearing feedback from users. You can leave a comment below or email support@nag.co.uk with the subject 'NAG and C++ wrappers'.

March 14 Update

We now have 14 examples including optimization, matrix functions, nearest correlation matrices, and quantile analysis that are available in the above links.