Question

I’m writing a GLFW app, in which I’ve wrapped the function calls into a simple class. I’m having trouble setting the key callback.
My class is defined as:

class GAME 
{
private:
    bool running;
public:
    GAME();
    int execute();
    void events(int, int);
    int loop();
    int render();
};

The execute function is:

int GAME::execute() 
    {
        glfwOpenWindow(640, 320, 8, 8, 8, 8, 0, 0, GLFW_WINDOW);
        glfwSetWindowTitle("Viraj");
        glfwSetKeyCallback(events);
        running = true;
        while(glfwGetWindowParam(GLFW_OPENED))
        {
            glfwPollEvents();
            loop();
            render();
        }
        return 0;
    }

Compiling the following code on Visual Studio 2010 gives the error:

error C3867: 'GAME::events': function call missing argument list; use '&GAME::events' to create a pointer to member

Using &GAME::events gives:

error C2664: 'glfwSetKeyCallback' : cannot convert parameter 1 from 'void (__thiscall GAME::* )(int,int)' to 'GLFWkeyfun' 1> There is no context in which this conversion is possible

Answer 1

There is a C++ syntax for pointing to class member methods but you cannot pass them to a C style API. C understands function calls and every non-static object method, taking your events as an example, looks like this thinking in C terms: void events(void* this, int, int); meaning that every method apart from the standard arguments also gets a this pointer silently passed.

To make your events C compatible make it static void events(int, int);. This way it will follow the C calling semantics – it will not require a this pointer getting passed. You have to also somehow pass your object to this callback in some other manner (if you need this object’s data in the callback).