Marmot C API

This directory contains the C API wrappers for the Marmot Finite Element Library. It provides an opaque C interface that allows C programs to hook directly into the core MarmotElement and MarmotElementFactory C++ classes safely.

Features

• Object-Oriented Opaqueness: Elements are created and tracked via a managed MarmotElement_t pointer.
• Robust Exception Catching: Invalid inputs passed from the C boundary are caught internally; std::invalid_argument and std::runtime_error won't crash the orchestrating C process.
• Flat C Arrays: Transparent parameter injections using standard continuous block double* arrays.

Build Instructions

The build relies on finding the native compiled Marmot library. You must explicitly map the library path and the include path using CMake variables when configuring.

mkdir build && cd build

# Replace these paths with the actual locations of your Marmot build and headers
cmake \
  -DMARMOT_INCLUDE_DIR=/path/to/marmot/include \
  -DMARMOT_LIB_DIR=/path/to/marmot/build \
  ..

make -j

Once built, the dynamically linked libmarmot_c_api.so binary will be available to link against your C executable.

Example

A comprehensive test example demonstrating full C API capability mappings is provided in the examples/ directory.

To run it after compiling:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/marmot/build:$(pwd) ./example_c

Contributing

This wrapper adopts the Marmot C++ framework style. Validation and formatting configs (.clang-format and .pre-commit-config.yaml) are provided on the root level to seamlessly format C source codes before commits.