diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index b3e1c1f0..f696f70a 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -2,6 +2,9 @@ node-ffi ======== ### Node.js Foreign Function Interface [![Build Status](https://secure.travis-ci.org/rbranson/node-ffi.png)](http://travis-ci.org/rbranson/node-ffi) +#### Attention node-ffi users! v1.0 has been released! See the [API changes +page][v1apichanges]. + `node-ffi` is a Node.js addon for loading and calling dynamic libraries using pure JavaScript. It can be used to create bindings to native libraries without writing any C++ code. It also simplifies the augmentation of node.js with C code as it takes care of handling the translation of types across JavaScript and C, which can add reams of boilerplate code to your otherwise simple C. See the `example/factorial` for an example of this use case. @@ -27,13 +30,15 @@ var current = ffi.Library(null, { current.atoi('1234'); // 1234 ``` +For a more detailed introduction, see the [node-ffi tutorial page][tutorial]. + Requirements ------------ * Linux, OS X, Windows, or Solaris. * `libffi` comes bundled with node-ffi; it does *not* need to be installed on your system. - * The current version is tested to run on node v0.6.x and v0.7.x. + * The current version is tested to run on node v0.6, v0.7, and v0.8. Installation @@ -70,20 +75,33 @@ Types ----- The types that you specify in function declarations correspond to ref's types -system. So [see that](https://github.com/TooTallNate/ref#built-in-types) for a reference if you are unfamiliar. +system. So [see its docs][ref-types] for +a reference if you are unfamiliar. V8 and 64-bit Types ------------------- -Internally, V8 stores integers that will fit into a 32-bit space in a 32-bit integer, and those that fall outside of this get put into double-precision floating point numbers. This is problematic because FP numbers are imprecise. To get around this, the methods in node-ffi that deal with 64-bit integers return strings and can accept strings as parameters. +Internally, V8 stores integers that will fit into a 32-bit space in a 32-bit +integer, and those that fall outside of this get put into double-precision +floating point numbers. This is problematic because FP numbers are imprecise. +To get around this, the methods in node-ffi that deal with 64-bit integers return +strings and can accept strings as parameters. Call Overhead ------------- -There is non-trivial overhead associated with FFI calls. Comparing a hard-coded binding version of `strtoul()` to an FFI version of `strtoul()` shows that the native hard-coded binding is 5x faster. So don't just use the C version of a function just because it's faster. There's a significant cost in FFI calls, so make them worth it. +There is non-trivial overhead associated with FFI calls. Comparing a hard-coded +binding version of `strtoul()` to an FFI version of `strtoul()` shows that the +native hard-coded binding is orders of magnitude faster. So don't just use the +C version of a function just because it's faster. There's a significant cost in +FFI calls, so make them worth it. License ------- MIT License. See the `LICENSE` file. + +[v1apichanges]: https://github.com/rbranson/node-ffi/wiki/API-changes-from-v0.x-to-v1.x +[tutorial]: https://github.com/rbranson/node-ffi/wiki/Node-FFI-Tutorial +[ref-types]: https://github.com/TooTallNate/ref#built-in-types