- This UCCNC plugin allows implementing plugins in native C++ instead of using any .NET language.
- The .NET assembly which is loaded by UCCNC only acts as a proxy between C++ dll and UCCNC .NET plugin interface
- The assembly loads the C++ dll after it got loaded by UCCNC
- open uccnc-cpp-plugin.sln and compile it using Visual Studio 2017
- switch to UCCNC installation directory (Usually C:\UCCNC\Plugins)
- create a directory called cpp (if it does not exist already)
- copy example.dll from Debug directory to C:\UCCNC\Plugins\cpp
- copy plugin_proxy.dll to C:\UCCNC\Plugins directory
- rename plugin_proxy.dll to example_proxy.dll
- The assembly will load a cpp plugin depending on its name. If it is called plugin_proxy.dll it will load plugin.dll from cpp subdirectory. If it is called example_proxy.dll it will load example.dll etc.
- Use modern C++ without any feature limitations
- Dynamic reload - Unload and reload the C++ plugin without restarting UCCNC
- This allows updating the plugin without restarting UCCNC every time
- Debug console for printf debugging
- UCCNC has a copy protection which prevents you attaching the Visual Studio debugger to UCCNC. This makes it hard to debug your plugin. When compiling the C++ dll in debug configuration a console is attached to UCCNC so you can debug using printf.
- The author has very few knowledge about C# / .NET but strong knowledge in C++
- The author was too lazy to learn C# just to write a plugin
- UCCNC is written in .NET 2.0. Therefore any plugin (the assembly) has also to be written in .NET 2.0. Assemblies written in higher .NET versions cannot be used. Unfortunately .NET 2.0 is so old that many libraries (like MQTT) are not available for it.