TinkerCell C API

The TinkerCell C API is a collection of functions that allow C programs to directly interact with TinkerCell's visual interface. SWIG is used to extend this API to other languages, such as Python, Perl, R, etc. The functions provided in this API are coverted to Signals, which are much slower than function calls. But they can be used to communicate between threads, which is the main reason why they are used in TinkerCell.The API uses six main data structures:

item: just a reference to a TinkerCell object. Items are represented as integers in Python and Octave and as long ints in C.

string: a string of characters used. Represented as const char* in C.

tc_items array of items

        tc_items A = tc_allItems()         
        A.length         
        tc_getItem(A,3)

        long x = tc_find("x")
        tc_setItem(A,3,x)
        tc_items A2 = tc_createItemsArray(10) //array of length 10

tc_strings: array of strings

        tc_items A = tc_allItems()
        tc_strings S = tc_getNames( A )
        S.length
        tc_getString(S,3)
        tc_setString(S,3,"hello")
        tc_strings S2 = tc_createStringsArray(10) //array of length 10

tc_matrix: Two dimensional array of reals with row and column names. The rownames and colnames fields are tc_strings objects

        long x = tc_find("x")
        tc_matrix M = tc_getNumericalData( x, "Parameters" )         
        int r = M.rows
        int c = M.cols
        tc_getColumnName(M,2)
        tc_setColumnName(M,2,"col2")             
        tc_getRowName(M,1)               
        tc_setRowName(M,1,"row1")                
        tc_getMatrixValue(M,2,3)                 
        tc_setMatrixValue(M,2,3,0.5)

        tc_matrix M2 = tc_createMatrix(5,4)

tc_table: Two dimensional array of Strings with row and column names. The rownames and colnames fields are tc_strings objects

        long x = tc_find("x")
        tc_table S = tc_getTextData( x, "Text Attributes" )          
        S.rows           
        S.cols           
        tc_getString( S.rownames, 1)             
        tc_getString( S.colnames, 2)             
        tc_getTableValue(S,2,3)          
        tc_setTableValue(S,2,3,"hello")
        tc_table S2 = tc_createTable(4,5)