GIR2TS

Reads GObject Introspection GIR files to produce TypeScript declaration files aimed for use with GJS. It is a NodeJS script itself written in TypeScript.

Status

Currently generates the bindings hosted on GJS-TS.

Usage

Put the .gir files in a directory. In this case it's ../gir.

git clone https://github.com/niagr/GIR2TS.git
cd GIR2TS/src
node ./sctipt.js --overridesdir=../exceptions --outdir=../typings --girdir=../gir

Options:

--outdir The directory to put the .d.ts files in.

--girdir The directory to read the .gir files from

--overridesdir The directory from which to read the json files describing the manual overrides

Working

Currently applies the following mappings:

Class

Generates an interface corresponding to the instance side of the class and a matching object of the same name as the constructor that contains the constructor and static methods. Properties are not included in the declarations because they cause naming conflicts with the methods and signals. Most properties should be accessed using getters and setters anyway and for the rare times when that's not an option we can always cast to any.

interface Window {
    set_default_size (width: number, height: number): void;
    set_title (title: string): void;
    // rest of methods
}
let Window : {
    new (): Window;
}

Interfaces

Maps to typescript interfaces.

Functions

Map to typescript function declarations.

Enums and Bitfields

Maps to typescript enums.

Record

Maps to typescript classes with properties and methods.

Callbacks

Map to typescript interfaces with call signatures. For example:

interface CellAllocCallback {
	(renderer: CellRenderer, cell_area: Gdk.Rectangle, cell_background: Gdk.Rectangle, data: any) : boolean;
}

Unions

Currently map to blank typescript interfaces. To access members cast to any or an ad hoc interface.

Alias

Map to typescript type declarations. For example:

type Allocation = Gdk.Rectangle;

Manual Overrides

Sometimes, since the GObject property names are computed dynamically, methods, signals and properties often end up having the same names and interfaces overload inherited methods which doesn't fly with TypeScript. For this reason, certain classes, methods, etc. are ommited manually. These are commented out in the declaration files.

These manual overrides are specified in json files, one for each GIR file. The exceptions directory contains these files. For example, this is the overrides file for Gtk:

{
    "exclude": {
        "class": {
            "Widget": [
                "activate",
                "child_notify",
                "get_window",
                "mnemonic_activate",
                "get_direction",
                "get_state",
                "grab_focus",
                "set_direction",
                "set_state",
                "set_style",
                "get_style"
            ],
            "Container": [
                "remove"
            ],
            "CellAreaBox": [
                "pack_end",
                "pack_start"
            ]
        },
        "function": [
            "false",
            "true"
        ]
    }
}

TODO

• constructor support
• static functions for classes and records
• in out parameter
• signals