ARROW-15650: [MATLAB] Rename the MEX gateway function

[lafiona]

Overview

The MATLAB Interface to Arrow contains a MEX function named mexfcn to delegate MATLAB calls to C++ functions that implement the functionality.

When the interface is installed, the name of the MEX function, mexfcn, is on the global MATLAB Search Path. Because the previous name only captured that it is related to MEX functionality, it may cause conflicts with functions outside of the MATLAB Interface to Arrow.

Implementation

The following changes were made to address the potential naming conflict:

• Rename the MEX function to call.
  • The name of the MEX file will be: call.<mex-extension>
• Install the MEX function to the MATLAB package folder hierarchy: +arrow/+cpp within the installation directory.
  • Within MATLAB, the function is accessed by the following function signature: arrow.cpp.call('<cpp-function-name>', <cpp-function-argument-1>, ..., <cpp-function-argument-N>).
• Install all dependencies of the MEX function to the same package folder hierarchy.
• Updated MATLAB tests to use the new function name.

Testing

• The change was qualified locally on Windows 10 (Ninja and Visual Studio), macOS 11.5 (Ninja and Xcode) for the following configurations:
  • Build both Arrow and GTest.
  • Use ARROW_HOME and GTEST_ROOT.
• Additionally, the GitHub Actions CI passed for the change on Linux and macOS.

Notes

Thank you for working on this pull request with me, @kevingurney!

[github-actions]

https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/ARROW-15650

[lafiona]

@nickhaddady, do you have any feedback for this design change?

[nickhaddady]

This is great! Really like the change to use arrow.cpp.call as it seems to match what is going on in other language bindings for arrow. Think we do need to change the name of the binary mex file that gets built thought to avoid potential future symbol collisions.

[kou]

Can we merge this?

[lafiona]

Can we merge this?

Yes, this is ready to merge. Thank you!

[kou]

OK.
Merged.

[ursabot]

Benchmark runs are scheduled for baseline = e989fb3 and contender = 93b192c. 93b192c is a master commit associated with this PR. Results will be available as each benchmark for each run completes.
Conbench compare runs links:
[Finished ⬇️0.0% ⬆️0.0%] ec2-t3-xlarge-us-east-2
[Finished ⬇️0.21% ⬆️0.0%] test-mac-arm
[Finished ⬇️0.36% ⬆️0.0%] ursa-i9-9960x
[Finished ⬇️0.3% ⬆️0.04%] ursa-thinkcentre-m75q
Supported benchmarks:
ec2-t3-xlarge-us-east-2: Supported benchmark langs: Python. Runs only benchmarks with cloud = True
test-mac-arm: Supported benchmark langs: C++, Python, R
ursa-i9-9960x: Supported benchmark langs: Python, R, JavaScript
ursa-thinkcentre-m75q: Supported benchmark langs: C++, Java