CEP-0041: Generated C Headers¶

Draft

Draft proposal for generating C headers from exported Catalyst declarations. V1 exports C symbols but does not generate headers.

Summary¶

Catalyst should eventually decide how the compiler emits C headers for exported ABI-safe declarations.

V1 C interop validates and emits symbols but does not promise header generation.

Example¶

Illustrative generated header:

#ifndef CATALYST_AUDIO_H
#define CATALYST_AUDIO_H

float gain_apply(float input, float gain);

#endif

The proposal must decide naming, include guards, type mappings, documentation comments, and module/package layout.

Motivation¶

Generated headers make C interop usable without hand-written declarations. They also freeze names, type representations, include guards, documentation conventions, and build integration.

Proposed Direction¶

The proposal should cover:

which declarations appear in generated headers;
naming and include guard policy;
mapping Catalyst types to C declarations;
documentation comments;
package/module header layout;
build-system integration.

V1 Compatibility¶

V1 has no generated C header contract.